Checkmate At The End – Libya, Oscars, Wisconsin

There is not much news. There is a lot of noise. At first glance it appears as if there is a great deal of news, but upon further reflection what we are witnessing is data points. The data points are all the incremental accumulation of the coming end of several news stories.

At liberal Slate magazine we noticed an interesting sentence regarding the dreadful dull Academy Awards from last night and the possibility that co-host James Franco was high:

“So complete was Franco’s desistance from the co-hosting project that there was speculation around the Web as to whether he might have been partaking of a little of the Pineapple Express backstage. (You know, that strain of weed so rare that “smoking it is like killing a unicorn.”) All I know is that at some point during what must have been a long, tedious and stressful night, Franco clearly decided, “I’m never doing this again, so it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks.” Unfortunately instead of loosening him up, this realization, herb-assisted or no, shut him down. He was like a one-term president dedicated to governing on the platform of Who Gives A Crap.”

President “Who Gives A Crap” made yet another appearance which further burdened a tedious event. The once “must watch” Oscar ceremony became as worth watching as the Nobel Peace Prize post President “Who Gives A Crap”. For a president who did not have time to denounce Libyan nutjob Gaddaffy but does have time to host Motown parties, basketball tutorials, and Glady’s Knight, it was another example of “Who Gives A Crap.”

That it was Republican/conservative websites, not Big Labor, that goaded President “Who Gives A Crap” with his own words is instructive. As we wrote in our very first article about the Wisconsin battle, “The ending won’t be pretty.”

Big Media outlets are pretending that somehow the battle of Wisconsin will hurt Republicans. The truth is that it is the Obama Dimocratic Party that is in great danger as Big Labor is about to have its testicular fortitude cut off. In New York, the just elected governor from the Cuomo dynasty is in his very own Wisconsin style battle:

“New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has proven particularly adept at keeping his party at line and labor unions at bay and off the airwaves while he pushes for budget cuts.

But there are some signs of cracks in support in his own party emerging today, as a source forwards on a letter sent by 42 local Democratic elected officials to the governor. At issue is Cuomo’s decision to let a tax surcharge on income over $1 million expire, a tax that many Democrats had hoped to use to plug the budget gap:

“[S]ome of Governor Cuomo’s budget policies are neither balanced nor well conceived,” write the signers, led by Robert Jackson, a New York City Councilman, and Catherine Fahey, a local Albany official. “According to the Governor, this is what it means to be a ‘new Democrat.’ …If this is what it means to be a New Democrat, and if this is what it means to be progressive then something is very wrong.”

The signers don’t include any members of a state legislature whose members know that they cross Cuomo at their peril, but it’s a sign of restiveness in Democratic Party ranks.”

Last year, Andy Stern retired as the president of SEIU, the service employees union that he’d built into a 2.2 million member heavyweight. During his tenure, Stern was known — and sometimes reviled — for his efforts to reform organized labor in America: He struck deals with corporations like Wal-Mart, led a number of unions to break away from the AFL-CIO and form Change to Win, and argued that unions had to modernize themselves and accept the effective end of the corporate welfare state and the dawn of a much more competitive economy, when contracts alone wouldn’t be enough. Since retiring, Stern has served as a member of the president’s fiscal commission and a fellow at Georgetown University. We spoke last night about where labor goes after Wisconsin. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Ezra Klein: A week ago, everyone I spoke to in the labor movement was convinced that Walker’s initiative was the worst thing to happen to them in a generation. Now I talk to them and they say it may be the best thing to happen to them in a generation. Where do you come down?

Andy Stern: It has that potential. The unions managed to strip the fiscal issues out from all of it, and Walker made such a big mistake exempting the police and firemen’s unions. He mobilized unions members in a way that hasn’t happened in a long time, and brought them together with students and other progressives. It’s turned into a Democrat versus Republican fight, not a good government versus bad government fight. Walker is beginning to look stubborn and inflexible. They’ve clearly raised the price of taking this action to a very high level. It was interesting to see [Indiana’s] Mitch Daniels and [Florida’s] Rick Scott back away from this stuff. But it may not end beautifully in Wisconsin. They have to be really careful about how that end is interpreted — whatever it is. You have to think about how to not make it a loss, without making ridiculous claims that you’ve won.

But this is what we do best in labor: fight back. Our question going forward is how do we change our posture on budget and fiscal issues so we’re not always looking like an impediment. Budget and pensions are math. There is a problem in Wisconsin next year, as there is in 44 other states. And the union eventually made a decision about contributing to solve the problem, but doing it under duress looks different than doing it as part of a collaborative process.”

All that fight back talk is gibberish intended to deceive from the thrashing that unions are about to get in Wisconsin and in many other states. As we wrote this is less about unions than unions as an auxiliary of the Obama Dimocratic Party. President Nixon was in many ways saved by the “silent majority” and union members from the trade unions who beat up protesting anti-war students. That was at a time when unions had supporters in Republican ranks and Republicans had supporters in union leadership ranks.

What Stern and his ilk refuse to acknowledge is that Big Labor leaders are often at odds with the interests of their rank and file. We saw that in Massachusetts where labor unions paid workers to hold signs for Martha Coakley but those same workers voted for Scott Brown. Obama’s health scam was the breaking point for many of those union members. Andy Stern refuses to acknowledge the problem preferring to gloat about the “successes” such as electing President “Who Gives A Crap”:

“EK: When you left SEIU last year, my private suspicion was that you were leaving because you didn’t see a future for the labor movement. You’d broken SEIU and your allied unions off into Change to Win, and that didn’t reverse the decline. You’d helped to elect Barack Obama, and gotten health-care reform passed, and those were major accomplishments, but it seemed to me that if you’d seen a path forward for union density, you would have stuck around once they were finished. Was I right?

AS: What I would say is I felt that the next strategy of change would be different. I had tried everything I knew. I was too much of a victim of the model I created. I tried Change to Win and helping Obama, and then I just ran out of Andy Stern ideas.”

Big Labor, just like the mainline women’s organizations, gay groups and many Jewish organizations would rather tie themselves to President “Who Gives A Crap” than talk to their workers and act as representatives of the workers. At one point Stern appears to wake up to the failed alliance:

” EK: But that wasn’t an inevitable outcome. The Great Depression, of course, was a huge boost for the labor movement. The Great Recession has been a huge blow to it. I’ve been kicking around a theory that Obama and the Democrats were loathe — for reasons that made pragmatic sense — to really create a persuasive narrative around what had gone wrong in the country. Doing so would’ve meant vilifying Wall Street, and they needed the market to stabilize, and employers to start hiring again. Plus, they didn’t really believe it. But that left a vacuum that Republicans occupied with a different set of villains: Government, and by association, labor unions, particularly public-employee labor unions. Think there’s any truth to that?

AS: I would say that Republicans have been very successful. There are three things Americans don’t like: Big unions, big government, and big corporations. So Republicans go after big government and big unions, and only talk about small businesses. And it’s worked. Where does the union movement have enough penetration in an industry of this century to be disruptive? We’re down to 6.2 percent in the private sector. The forces that don’t like unions there have largely finished with us. And now they’re moving to the public sector. But part of this story is that the Democratic Party hasn’t embraced unions in the last 20 years. Republicans understood unions as an ally of the Democratic Party. But unions couldn’t get Democrats to embrace unions as a response. They made the argument that making more union members was how you make more Democrats, and that argument is true, but they couldn’t get the Democratic Party to really embrace that theory. Today, no one thinks about any type of labor or industrial policy at all.”

Labor unions are about to learn that they must adapt or die. Ignoring workers so that labor leaders get invitations to the White House is a sure path to death.

“There still seems to be no coherent strategy or plan that pulls labor together in a more fundamental direction to rebuild and reassert. In some ways it is too easy to see Wisconsin as a last gasp of the old school. I heard recently that the Madison AFL-CIO was debating calling a general strike. If called, who would come? If we came, what would we really stop? I want to see this and count the feet on those streets! [snip]

…SEIU and every other union need to pull all of their last dollars together and figure out how to survive and turn the tide and do it now, make it real, and make it very, very different, because the bell has rung on the old school and the old ideas, as Stern acknowledges, and we are running out of time and money with the tide coming in hard against us.“

“The Obama administration also behaves as if the weight of the United States in world affairs is approximately the same as that of Switzerland. We await developments. We urge caution, even restraint. We hope for the formation of an international consensus. And, just as there is something despicable about the way in which Swiss bankers change horses, so there is something contemptible about the way in which Washington has been affecting—and perhaps helping to bring about—American impotence. Except that, whereas at least the Swiss have the excuse of cynicism, American policy manages to be both cynical and naive.

This has been especially evident in the case of Libya. For weeks, the administration dithered over Egypt and calibrated its actions to the lowest and slowest common denominators, on the grounds that it was difficult to deal with a rancid old friend and ally who had outlived his usefulness. But then it became the turn of Muammar Qaddafi—an all-round stinking nuisance and moreover a long-term enemy—and the dithering began all over again. Until Wednesday Feb. 23, when the president made a few anodyne remarks that condemned “violence” in general but failed to cite Qaddafi in particular—every important statesman and stateswoman in the world had been heard from, with the exception of Obama. And his silence was hardly worth breaking. Echoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had managed a few words of her own, he stressed only that the need was for a unanimous international opinion, as if in the absence of complete unity nothing could be done, or even attempted. This would hand an automatic veto to any of Qaddafi’s remaining allies. It also underscored the impression that the opinion of the United States was no more worth hearing than that of, say, Switzerland. Secretary Clinton was then dispatched to no other destination than Geneva, where she will meet with the U.N. Human Rights Council—an absurd body that is already hopelessly tainted with Qaddafi’s membership.

By the time of Obama’s empty speech, even the notoriously lenient Arab League had suspended Libya’s participation, and several of Qaddafi’s senior diplomatic envoys had bravely defected. One of them, based in New York, had warned of the use of warplanes against civilians and called for a “no-fly zone.” Others have pointed out the planes that are bringing fresh mercenaries to Qaddafi’s side. In the Mediterranean, the United States maintains its Sixth Fleet, which could ground Qaddafi’s air force without breaking a sweat. But wait! We have not yet heard from the Swiss admiralty, without whose input it would surely be imprudent to proceed.”

Chris Hitchens’ words are empty because he was one of those that most vilified Hillary Clinton and supported President “Who Gives A Crap”. Now Obama’s weak excuses are tallied by Hitchens:

“Evidently a little sensitive to the related charges of being a) taken yet again completely by surprise, b) apparently without a policy of its own, and c) morally neuter, the Obama administration contrived to come up with an argument that maximized every form of feebleness. Were we to have taken a more robust or discernible position, it was argued, our diplomatic staff in Libya might have been endangered. In other words, we decided to behave as if they were already hostages! The governments of much less powerful nations, many with large expatriate populations as well as embassies in Libya, had already condemned Qaddafi’s criminal behavior, and the European Union had considered sanctions, but the United States (which didn’t even charter a boat for the removal of staff until Tuesday) felt obliged to act as if it were the colonel’s unwilling prisoner. I can’t immediately think of any precedent for this pathetic “doctrine,” but I can easily see what a useful precedent it sets for any future rogue regime attempting to buy time. Leave us alone—don’t even raise your voice against us—or we cannot guarantee the security of your embassy. (It wouldn’t be too soon, even now, for the NATO alliance to make it plain to Qaddafi that if he even tried such a thing, he would lose his throne, and his ramshackle armed forces, and perhaps his worthless life, all in the course of one afternoon.)”

Obama has been too busy courting the Academy Awards to develop a strategy or a purpose. President “Who Gives A Crap” is fast turning the United States into a helpless, stinking piece of crap:

“The United States, with or without allies, has unchallengeable power in the air and on the adjacent waters. It can produce great air lifts and sea lifts of humanitarian and medical aid, which will soon be needed anyway along the Egyptian and Tunisian borders, and which would purchase undreamed-of goodwill. It has the chance to make up for its pointless, discredited tardiness with respect to events in Cairo and Tunis. It also has a president who has shown at least the capacity to deliver great speeches on grand themes. Instead, and in the crucial and formative days in which revolutions are decided, we have had to endure the futile squawkings of a cuckoo clock.”

Obama could give a speech to the Arab and Muslim world noting that the Jews are not the problem. A few Reaganesque cruise missiles aimed at the Tripoli barracks in which Quadaffy hides could be persuasive that it is time to depart either Libya or this Earth. But Obama does not give a crap.

All Obama cares about is himself and the muscular arms of Mrs. “Who Gives A Crap”. The endgame in Wisconsin and Libya approaches. 2012 approaches as well.

State and local governments would have saved an estimated $1.3 billion in 2010 on health insurance and automatic pay increases if the limits imposed by Senate Bill5 were in effect, according to a new analysis by the state Office of Collective Bargaining.

The report comes as Senate Republicans are preparing to pass the biggest overhaul to collective bargaining since the law was enacted in 1983. Changes to the bill and a committee vote could happen as soon as Tuesday, with a possible full Senate vote by Thursday.

The bill seeks to significantly curtail collective bargaining power for more than 350,000 state and local public workers, limiting what they are allowed to discuss at the bargaining table and removing all ability to strike.

Republicans argue that the measure is necessary to curtail rising personnel costs and give officials more flexibility to deal with looming budget cuts. Democrats and unions have called it an attack on middle-class workers who have taken many wage and benefit concessions in recent years.

The cost analysis focused on three provisions in the bill: that workers must pay at least 20 percent of the cost of their health insurance, and the elimination of automatic step and longevity pay increases currently built into most contracts.

The analysis estimates the state would have saved $217 million last year, while the savings for schools and local governments would have topped $1.1 billion.

The savings estimate did not include the bill’s proposed ban on employers paying any part of an employee’s share of his or her pension costs. More than 2,500 local governmental units pick up at least part of the tab now.

snip

Senate Democrats did not submit amendments. A collaboration of every major public union except the Fraternal Order of Police said yesterday that the bill is too flawed to fix, and Democrats agree.

snip

Sen. Kevin Bacon, R-Minerva Park, chairman of the Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee that is hearing the bill, said he has been assured by Senate GOP leaders that there will be enough support on his panel to move the bill. But some Republicans on his committee have expressed concern, and Democrats are unified against it.

On occasion, legislative leaders have replaced members of committees to assure passage of certain bills. Bacon said he was unaware whether the speculation is true that such a swap could happen next week before a vote.
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Kasich wavered on banning collective bargaining saying he was not against it but once again shenanigans will be needed to get this passed.

Shadowfax
February 28th, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Is Hillary now the spokeswoman in chief of the military too?
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hen why did we wait sooo longgg to send a boat to rescue our citizens? And then a very small one at that.

Either someone’s math is off, or some Walker voters don’t want to admit they did. 😉

publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/BarrettWalkerRematchResults.pdf

Q1 If you could do last fall’s election for Governor over again, would you vote for Democrat Tom Barrett or Republican Scott Walker?
Tom Barrett ……….. 52%
Scott Walker………. 45%
Not sure ……………. 4%

Q2 In the election for Governor last year did you vote for Democrat Tom Barrett or Republican Scott Walker, or did you not vote in the election?
Tom Barrett …………. 47%
Scott Walker ………… 47%
Didn’t vote/Don’t remember ….. 7%

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they would vote for Barrett if the election were held today, while 45% said they would vote for Walker. That’s almost exactly the opposite of what happened in the election, when Walker won the governorship with 52% of the vote to Barrett’s 47%.
The huge shift comes, not surprisingly, from union members.

Reporter: Obama Privately Put Out Word at Dinner That Opposition To Him Was Based on “Subterranean” Racist Impulses
—Ace

This is important. Since 2007, Hillary Clinton partisans were complaining that while Obama pretended to be post-racial, in fact he was sending out his minions to make the bitterly racist attacks, while he floated above it all, clean.

They couldn’t actually prove their case — well, they knew Obama’s supporters were making these bitterly-racist arguments on a daily basis, and that Obama did little to restrain them, but they couldn’t prove he directed such attacks.

Same thing in the general election, of course — Obama spoke behind closed doors about “bitter clingers” in Pennsylvania with their guns, religion, and racism, but pretended to be post-racial in public declarations. And his minions of course savagely attacked any who opposed him, often in racial terms.

I was just watching (for the first time) John Ziegler’s Media Malpractice and I was struck how the media cast every charge against Obama — such as Palin’s statement that he “palled around with terrorists” — as “racist.”

Well, the terrorists Palin had in mind were white — Ayers and Dohrn — and a PLO guy. Who I guess isn’t white per se but also isn’t black, and no one can claim with a straight face that charging a PLO guy with terrorist-support was due to “racism.”

But they did. They rushed to claim that Palin was fishing in racist waters, rather than just noting a provable fact.

In this way, 90% of Obama’s election campaign was highly racialized — anyone opposing him was a racist, and every criticism made of him was also racist, and therefore not worthy of discussion.

Obama’s race was a perfect defense for everything. It was like a comedy sketch — where you couldn’t say anything about the guy without being screamed at for being “racist.” (Well, Joe Biden could claim, of course, that it was just “story-book” that we were exposed to our very first “articulate and clean” African-American… that was just “sweet,” not racist in the genial way a senile old man whittling on a swinging porch-seat is sweet rather than racist.)

This continues to this day. In 2009, Tea Partiers carried signs accusing Obama of being a socialist. Media conclusion? Racism.

Now, it has long been claimed that Obama’s minions and the media (but I repeat myself) are just coming up with these nasty attacks themselves, and that our post-racial president has nothing, nothing at all to do with them.

Now we have proof from a reporter that’s a lie.

Obama Reportedly Suggested Tea Partiers Are Partially Motivated By Race.
Kenneth T. Walsh, in a “Special Report” for US News Weekly (2/26) titled, “Race in the Era of Obama,” writes that in May 2010, President Obama “told guests at a private White House dinner that race was probably a key component in the rising opposition to his presidency from conservatives, especially right-wing activists in the anti-incumbent ‘Tea Party’ movement. … A guest suggested that when Tea Party activists said they wanted to ‘take back’ their country, their real motivation was to stir up anger and anxiety at having a black president, and Obama didn’t dispute the idea. He agreed that there was a ‘subterranean agenda’ in the anti-Obama movement — a racially biased one.”

I don’t have a cite yet, because it takes a few days for US News to add this stuff to its online site, but I have that from a very good source.

Frank W. Buckles, The Last American Veteran Of WWI Dies At Age 110
—DrewM.

And then there were none.

Mr. Buckles, who was born by lantern light in a Missouri farmhouse, quit school at 16 and bluffed his way into the Army. As the nation flexed its full military might overseas for the first time, he joined 4.7 million Americans in uniform and was among 2 million U.S. troops shipped to France to vanquish the German kaiser.
Ninety years later, with available records showing that former corporal Buckles, serial No. 15577, had outlived all of his compatriots from World War I, the Department of Veterans Affairs declared him the last doughboy standing. He was soon answering fan mail and welcoming a multitude of inquisitive visitors to his rural home.

“I feel like an endangered species,” he joked, well into his 11th decade. As a rear-echelon ambulance driver behind the trenches of the Western Front in 1918, he had been safe from the worst of the fighting. But “I saw the results,” he would say.

With his death, researchers said, only two of the approximately 65 million people mobilized by the world’s militaries during the Great War are known to be alive: an Australian man, 109, and a British woman, 110 .

It sounds like Mr. Buckles had quite the life, he actually spent most of WWII in a Japanese prison camp.

When I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s, WWI vets seemed so few and ancient even back then. It’s hard to believe that kids today must feel that way about WWII vets.

Just recently, the last widow of the civil war died. I believe she was a second wife, and she married a much older man when she was like a child. Anyway, that one really takes you back. We have the code talkers of WWII in the state, and there are not many of those left at this point.

I’m posting this because it seems different than other things I’m reading (reading too quickly, I’m afraid). So this is just “for the record” and “for discussion.” My guess–and I could be very wrong–is that the mass media is doing too much propaganda, and this is at least a counterbalance. We shall see. Note the date and time. Perhaps much has happened since. I haven’t been monitoring much.

The Feb. 26 Demonstrations called in all 50 states for Saturday, Feb. 26 drew hundreds of thousands to support the right of Wisconsin state workers for a decent living standard.

In Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, the AFL-CIO estimated that 100,000+ turned out for the 12th day of mass protest. On February 19, the demonstration in Madison had drawn 70,000.

In Indiana, 25,000+ people turned out. The crowds grew from 10,000 earlier in the week. Like the State Senate Democrats in Wisconsin, Indiana’s House Democratic Caucus walked out of the state house to protest the series of bills attacking the living standards of the people. Vowing they will not return to the Indiana state house until the attacks on working families stop, and three anti-labor bills were defeated. Protestors are camping out, despite the cold, at the entrance to the statehouse all weekend.

Three thousand demonstrated in Trenton, NJ, against Fascist Fatso Gov. Chris Christie. Today, Christie praised Obama because he supports the attacks on public workers, teachers in particular (see slug).

Three thousand five hundred demonstrated in Olympia, Washington; 1,000 in Washington, D.C.; 1,000 in Albany, New York; another 1,000 in New York City; and several hundred in Buffalo and Plattsburgh, NY. In St. Paul, Minnesota, 1,000 rallied and waved signs, and were addressed by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN). Thousands rallied in Columbus, OH.

In Madison, Capitol police have let thousands of demonstrators sleep in the Capitol building in the freezing weather. Police and firefighters from around the state have joined the “sleepover” to prevent the protestors from being thrown out. Gov. Scott Walker announced that the Capitol would be cleared at 4 p.m. Sunday, but as of 6 p.m., protestors remained, and none have been arrested. The Daily Mail UK runs a youtube video of a man who appears to be a police officer, with badge and a a “COPS FOR LABOR” jacket, who addressing the demonstrators: “Let me tell you, Governor Walker, we’re not here to do your bidding. We are here to do [the people’s] bidding. We work for all of these people. This isn’t a budget tissue. It’s a civil rights issue. Finally, Mr. Walker, this is not your house. This is our house.”

A Gallup poll found that 61% of Americans are against the attempt to take collective bargaining rights away from public workers. Gallup further analyzed its poll by income bracket, and found that the only income bracket that supported abolishing collective bargaining was of individuals who made more than $90,000 per year—and only 50% of them supported it!

In fact, it is Gov. Scott Walker who has been locked out. A contact on the scene described it this way:

“The capitol was too jammed to enter although there were lines hundreds of people long waiting … On the capitol terrace, supporters from around the country gathered and all looked a little awe-struck at the enormity of what they had done.

“Madison cops were somewhat speechless. There really wasn’t anything for them to do but give directions when asked. The previous nite cops, many from Madison but many from around the state and country, along with firefighters, slept in with the rabble. Former Madison police chief David Couper was sleeping in. It was jammed to the bulkheads…

“[Gov. Scott] Walker got kicked out of a restaurant because of customer complaints to management and waiters/waitresses refusing to serve him. He was asked to leave and did so to “boos” from the patrons.

“Tonite sleepers are supposed to leave. Capitol police are so pissed at Walker they privately say they may not enforce this.”

About half way down the screen is a video of the cop with the bullhorn saying they were told to evict the demonstrators but are joining them instead. At the end he turns and the back of his shirt says “COPS FOR LABOR.” boingboing had the video also. Apparently it’s true that a lot of police did march in and join the protestors.

I like to see news direct from both sides, no middlemen. This looks like a legit pro-demonstrator site:
defendwisconsin.org/

ohanson – just my own personal reaction, but I guess I think of “slant” more as a kind of automatic bias, someone writing from their own position and maybe not all that introspective about how their bias may be affecting their interpretations.

When I think of “spin”, it feels much more intentional to me. It seems like it’s often used also when someone has really screwed up, and afterwards people try to “rewrite history”. I think WORM (remember that from the primaries, “What Obama Really Meant”) might also qualify as “spin”.

“Right from the start I was very conscious of the war being a very serious situation,” says Frank Buckles of Chalres Town, W. Va. The war he’s referring to is the First World War.

Buckles is the only known living American veteran of that war.

Though Buckles is now 108 years old, in 1917 at age 16 he was too young to enlist. So he said he lied to the army recruiter. “I didn’t lie, I just misrepresented,” he says with a laugh.

Buckles’ misrepresentation worked and he became an U.S. Army corporal.

“I went overseas in December 1917 on the Carpathia the ship that came to the rescue of the Titanic,” he said. The RMS Carpathia was bound for England but that wasn’t where the action was.

“I was all gung ho to get to France,” Buckles says. “A regular army sergeant said to get into France in a hurry, you go into the ambulance corp.” Buckles had learned to drive on his family farm so he joined the motor pool and then escorted Germans back to Germany after the armistice.

The First World War was a global military conflict which involved almost all of the world’s great powers. Over 70 million military personnel were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. Over 15 million people were killed during the conflict, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.

The war didn’t diminish Buckles’ wanderlust. Soon after the war he got a job with an international shipping company. He was working in Manila when the Japanese attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. As the Japanese swept across the Pacific, Buckles was captured and spent three years in a prison camp.

Even with only a few years between the world wars the lessons of weakness had not been learned by the time of Pearl Harbor. Frank Buckles witnessed that foolish forgetfullness.

Frank Buckles fight is for memory, to not be forgotten, for the lessons to be learned.

Though he is many decades removed from harm’s way, Buckles says he has one more battle to fight. There is no World War One memorial in Washington, DC, only a dilapidated monument honoring area residents who died in the war. Buckles says he is fighting for his fellow veterans to be remembered on the National Mall.

“I hope they’ll have something of national importance,” says Buckles, who is honorary chairman of the World War 1 Memorial Foundation.

Frank Buckles is fighting his last fight for memory. Buckles does not want events he witnessed to fade away from history.

We respect Frank Buckles’ fight for memory. We won’t forget the events we witnessed either and will continue to fight not to have them fade from history.

admin- are you aware of the unique privileges granted the WI Governor? Repost from earlier post by Shadowfax:

Sort of like going to the Deli buying (1)lb of rare roast beef @ $6.99 a pound and when you get it home, you look at the weight and price ticket and realize you just paid $10.99 for a lb of Ham.
________________________________

What most people outside Wisconsin don’t know is that our governor wields a veto power on appropriations bills so strong as to be frankly comic. It’s not just a line-item veto; Walker has the power to veto individual phrases and words (PDF) — like “not” — from sentences.

If the state Senate returns to session and passes a bill with time limits on Walker’s favored provisions, he can strip out the new language and sign his own decompromised version into law.

If that sounds crazy, keep in mind that until 2008 governors of Wisconsin could — and did! — veto multi-page sections of bills, leaving in place only eight or nine words spelling out a law the governor wanted to enact. And that, in turn, was a much-narrowed version of the so-called “Vanna White veto” power enjoyed by Wisconsin governors prior to 1990, when they could veto individual letters out of words and individual digits out of numbers.

Even in its defanged state, the partial veto makes it hard for the legislature to talk meaningfully about compromise, on this bill or on controversial legislation still to come.

“The Democrats, without leverage to move Walker an inch and facing his veto power, benefit the longer their walkabout from the state Senate goes on. The delay has given the public time to digest features of the bill less popular than sticking it to the unions, like a new executive power to sell off the state’s power plants in no-bid deals. The unions, for their part, have had time to pivot to a stance that consents to the state’s taking a bigger chunk out of public workers’ paychecks — which makes Walker’s threat to lay off thousands of state workers, should his further demands not be met, seem less a budgetary necessity and more a political retaliation.

Most importantly, each day of impasse further energizes Democratic voters who didn’t show up in 2010 — and Democrats will need them next cycle. Walker’s attempt to kneecap the public sector unions is probably best seen as a way of crimping a reliable source of financial support for future Democratic candidates. The Walker administration seems devoted to placing GOP thumbs on as many electoral scales as is legally permissible.

The Wisconsin Troopers Association, which endorsed Walker, was specifically exempted from the budget repair bill, and a new law requiring a photo ID at polling places is expected to depress Democratic turnout in Milwaukee and Madison (student IDs don’t cut it, natch). The 2011 legislative redistricting will surely be aimed at consolidating Republican control of the Capitol, as well. The Democrats and the unions may well lose the collective bargaining fight; but they’re planning to lose it, if they must, as successfully as possible.

From admin, then Hitchins via admin:”…every important statesman and stateswoman in the world had been heard from, with the exception of Obama. And his silence was hardly worth breaking.”“Evidently a little sensitive to the related charges of being a) taken yet again completely by surprise, b) apparently without a policy of its own, and c) morally neuter, the Obama administration contrived to come up with an argument that maximized every form of feebleness….”
—————-
Good humor! Maybe not so much news, admin, but lots of analysis. Thank you.
Yesterday Father Barry had to lecture the governors about not demonizing teachers. Keeping Michelle’s food police role in mind, I’d love to see a photoshop of the two as Father (priest) Barry & Mother (as in leader of convent) Michelle.

Next point: WI Governor Walker looking not so weak after his office issued this:
I’m sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I’m sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts. “Furthermore, I’m sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin. “I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.”http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/117101638.html

Final thought. I wonder if Gov. Walker attended the governor’s meeting in DC. That would explain what appeared to be an uncomfortable time lapse regarding the situation at home.

Regarding this:
What most people outside Wisconsin don’t know is that our governor wields a veto power on appropriations bills so strong as to be frankly comic. It’s not just a line-item veto; Walker has the power to veto individual phrases and words (PDF) — like “not” — from sentences.

———–

Maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but with this veto power being about appropriations bills what strikes me is:

1.) Gov. Walker and co-conspirators have mixed other things in what should be a “this much money alloted for thus and such” bill.

2.) That is simply unethical (e.g. WRONG, in a right vs. wrong sense), no matter who has done such at thing before. To me, it’s like, “Have we all lost our minds here?”

3.) Any social organization, state, nation, neighborhood sewing circle, whatever, reduced to operating on such a childish level is lawfully on a trajectory of self-destruction, or at least reducing itself to some sort of piss ant banality unworthy of note or mention. Have we all lost our minds here?

I do realize this “happens everywhere.” But that doesn’t make it O.K. Have I slipped a gear here? Am I misrepresenting reality or failing to see something that rational grownups can see but I can’t?

Essence of Christine O’Donnell email explaining why she declined invite to Dancing/Stars:
I’m honored to have been invited to participate in one of the few uplifting TV shows out there. The physical challenge made it all the more appealing. Meeting challenges head-on makes us stronger. Yet, for now, I have another challenge before me; to complete a book that tells the story of the 2010 election cycle with the dignity and respect it deserves…It is my hope that this book will serve as a clarion call to my fellow citizen-activists by taking the reader beyond petitions and protests and articulating not just what we should do, but why we must do it.”

“He was like a one-term president dedicated to governing on the platform of Who Gives A Crap.”

my reaction was, gives a shit. That’s the way I’ve always heard the expression, except for maybe when the adults are speaking in front of 10-year-olds or some such.

Aside from that, I too think it is a brilliant catch and a brilliant expression; I think the “one term president” is an important element of it.

—————–

Minutes before closing time, the waiter watches some clown come in and head toward a table, urgently motioning the waiter to come here.

As the customer begins to sit, waiter walks up, and customer says, “I’m in a hurry.”

Waiter says, “So, …go.”

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Hey, Barry, or whatever your name is, if you have other shit to be doing, fine. Go do it. We actually have someone who gives a damn about the job and the country and the people. AND although you are almost certainly better at playing basketball, she knows how to do this presidenting stuff. Just go.

holdthemaccountable
March 1st, 2011 at 6:25 am
Governor Walker looking not so weak after his office issued this:
I’m sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I’m sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts. “Furthermore, I’m sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin. “I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.”http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/117101638.html
=====================================================

Why do I have the feeling that if he threw that at President Clinton he’d get his ass handed to him in a basket?

The Democrats, without leverage to move Walker an inch and facing his veto power, benefit the longer their walkabout from the state Senate goes on. The delay has given the public time to digest features of the bill less popular than sticking it to the unions, like a new executive power to sell off the state’s power plants in no-bid deals. [….]
Most importantly, each day of impasse further energizes Democratic voters who didn’t show up in 2010

============

Hey, just what I’ve been saying! The walkout gives us all time to read the fine print in Walkercrap.

“Evidence outlined in a Pentagon contractor report suggests that financial subversion carried out by unknown parties, such as terrorists or hostile nations, contributed to the 2008 economic crash by covertly using vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system.

The unclassified 2009 report “Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses” by financial analyst Kevin D. Freeman, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, states that “a three-phased attack was planned and is in the process against the United States economy.” “

Federal worker cannot participate in political parties in an active manner. In NM, in 2008, if you were on the payroll, you were considered part of Ricardson’s campaign team. They placed their very loyal subjects in key state jobs, which I did not see much performance of. Why? because thy were too busy being the Dems County Chair, or workng at his campaign offices.

It is now time for all who have had doubts about our girl as being the leader that we have been seeking since Bill left office to face reality and start a DRAFT HILLARY movement.This country can no longer accept the utter uselessness of TWO-TONE playboboy Barack Hussein Obama.President Hillary wrote ‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE” while BO and MO had a ghostwriter do their Fairy Tale Pulitzer BS.

ohanson: Why do I have the feeling that if he threw that at President Clinton he’d get his ass handed to him in a basket?
————————
Apologies, ohanson – I’m missing your point. I do not recall either Clinton being rudely blunt during his presidency, and there were many times when he would have been justified in being just that.
NMF @ 8:53: Figures. Did you catch the link I have on previous thread about a similar situation just revealed in Chicago? Woman Rahm put on his transition team recently admitted using state-paid time campaigning for Obama has resigned.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/elections/ct-met-emanuel-transition-final-20110226,0,2244383.story

Serious risks to the global economic system were exposed by the crisis of 2008,
raising legitimate questions regarding the cause of the turmoil. An estimated $50
trillion of global wealth evaporated in the crisis with more than a quarter of that
loss suffered by the United States and her citizens.

A number of potential causative factors exist, including sub-prime real estate loans, a
housing bubble, excessive leverage, and a failed regulatory system. Beyond these,
however, the risks of financial terrorism and/or economic warfare also must be
considered. The stakes are simply too high for these potential triggers to be ignored.

The Obama administration‘s recent call for greater financial regulation stipulates to the
facts that hedge fund activity has been virtually unregulated and that dark-pool trading,
Credit Default Swaps, and naked short selling provide tremendous vulnerabilities in the
system. This report concurs with these concerns as recently outlined by the heads of the
SEC, US Treasury, and Federal Reserve and provides supporting data. Beyond that, this
report exposes the fact that these vulnerabilities are subject to exploitation not only
by greedy capitalists seeking profit but also by financial terrorists, intent on
destroying the American financial system.

From a historical perspective, there are numerous examples of financial attacks on
specific companies and industries both for economic and non-economic reasons. In
addition, there are other examples of financial attacks conducted against individual
nations both for economic and non-economic reasons. Based on this awareness, the
economic collapse of 2008 must be critically examined to determine the possibility that a
financial attack took place as well as an assessment of future risks.

The purpose of this report is to consider the implications of financial terrorism
and/or economic warfare and to identify and realistically list prospective threats to
U.S. economic security from a means, motive, and opportunity perspective.

The preliminary conclusions of the research suggest that, without question, there were
actors who had the motive to harm the U.S. economy. These motives can be categorized
as both economic and non-economic. In addition, these same actors have clearly
demonstrated the means to carry out such an attack. Finally, the opportunity was clearly
present given the existing economic condition and regulatory framework in operation.

The hypothesis under consideration is that a three-phased attack is underway with two of
those phases completed to date.

The first phase was a speculative run-up in oil prices that generated as much
as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, filling the coffers of
Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant
Finance. This phase appears to have begun in 2007 and lasted through June 2008.

The rapid run-up in oil prices made the value of OPEC oil in the ground roughly
$137 trillion (based on $125/barrel oil) virtually equal to the value of all other
world financial assets, including every share of stock, every bond, every private
company, all government and corporate debt, and the entire world‘s bank
deposits. That means that the proven OPEC reserves were valued at almost three
times the total market capitalization of every company on the planet traded in all
27 global stock markets.

 The second phase appears to have begun in 2008 with a series of bear raids
targeting U.S. financial services firms that appeared to be systemically
significant. An initial bear raid against Bear Stearns was successful in forcing the
firm to near bankruptcy. It was acquired by JP Morgan Chase and the systemic
risk was averted briefly. Similar bear raids were conducted against various other
firms during the summer, each ending in an acquisition. The attacks continued
until the outright failure of Lehman Brothers in mid-September. This created a
system-wide crisis, caused the collapse of the credit markets, and nearly collapsed
the global financial system.

The bear raids were perpetrated by naked short selling and manipulation of credit
default swaps, both of which were virtually unregulated. The short selling was
actually enhanced by recent regulatory changes including rescission of the uptick
rule and loopholes such as ―the Madoff exemption.‖

While substantial, unusual trading activity can be identified, the source of the bear
raids has not been traceable to date due to serious transparency gaps for hedge
funds, trading pools, sponsored access, and sovereign wealth funds. What can be
demonstrated, however, is that two relatively small broker dealers emerged
virtually overnight to trade ―trillions of dollars worth of U.S. blue chip
companies. They are the number one traders in all financial companies that
collapsed or are now financially supported by the U.S. government. Trading by
the firms has grown exponentially while the markets have lost trillions of dollars
in value.‖1

 The risk of a Phase Three has quickly emerged, suggesting a potential direct
economic attack on the U.S. Treasury and U.S. dollar. Such an event has
already been discussed by finance ministers in major emerging market nations
such as China and Russia as well as Iran and the Arab states. A focused effort to
collapse the dollar by dumping Treasury bonds has grave implications including
the possibility of a downgrading of U.S. debt forcing rapidly rising interest rates
and a collapse of the American economy. In short, a bear raid against the U.S.
financial system remains possible and may even be likely.

Phase Two may have concluded with the brief market rebound that was supported by an
emerging regulatory response calling for greater transparency across the board. Efforts
including regulation of credit default swaps and proposed oversight of previously
unmonitored trading activity, as well as Federal support of systemically vital institutions.
But, we remain left with the critical unanswered questions of who and how?

The recent seizure of $134 billion face value in supposedly counterfeit U.S. Federal
Reserve bonds underscores the reality of the economic threat. This may be as
significant as the Japanese radio intercepts were before December 1941.

Immediate consideration of the issues outlined in this report is vital. Further study
is essential and prospective responses must be crafted to address future risks.
Finally, there are legitimate questions about the performance of the regulatory
regime and Wall Street institutions. Implications that these parties have been
complicit or otherwise co-opted cannot be ruled out. Therefore, it is strongly
recommended that this study and any task-force response be conducted outside of
traditional Washington and Wall Street circles.

{End of Executive Summary, pages 1-3.)
(The ex summary in the PDF has bold emphasis not shown here.)

holdthemaccountable
March 1st, 2011 at 9:28 am
Apologies, ohanson – I’m missing your point. I do not recall either Clinton being rudely blunt during his presidency, and there were many times when he would have been justified in being just that.

—————————————

I’m sorry, I was not suggesting a Clinton having been or being in the future rudely blunt. I can’t imagine such a thing. Quite the contrary; far from it! I was imagining, first Bill, and then I got into imagining Hillary, giving a classy savvy response to this governator. I can’t come up with the words or the argument, but the thing is our Clintons are skilled in handling low lifes like him.

To be honest, my hope is that someone here might be able to suggest how a Clinton might handle it. (What would James Carville say, I wonder? He might well be able to put Walker’s comments in their place.)

I’m not defending Resident Obama, I just think Walker is able to offer strawman arguments or whatever he’s doing because he’s up against a team of Dims. He’s up to no good, and if he were up against a Clinton, he’d look different.

The comments in the link that I was responding to, “Walker responds to Obama”http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/117101638.html?viewAll=1&sort=first+to+last#comments
are interesting. May be wrong, but my impression is the Walker supporters are clicking on the thumbs up button for comments they support like crazy. Seems I can find the comments I want to see by looking for 3x thumbs down as thumbs up. Maybe they hint at what an effective gentle, smiling, rational response to Walker’s sloppy attack would be.

– – – – –
Again, Gov. Walker and the first two posters don’t read or listen. Public employees said they are willing to pay what the Governor demands for health and pensions. THE problem is Walker’s stripping of COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.
Hello. [33 thumbs up, 98 down]

Walker could have passed the bond restructuring bill as a separate bill
weeks ago as all previous governor have done. He did not have to stuff it
as a line item in his self-titled “Bomb” bill. Clearly the cost rests upon the
gov. [6 up, 37 down]

The recession that has caused you so much pain was not caused by a
teacher of public worker. The recession that so ill effected you was the
result of criminal corporate activities… [1 up, 16 down]

Mrs. Smith/Shadowfax, considering the unbelievable veto power every Wisconsin governor has along with the dramatic victories in 2010 by Republicans whose bright idea was it to heighten the fight in Wisconsin into a national battle?

I think we are learning some very important issues on this blog. We talk in generics, but each state is different, for school teachers and state employees, as the federal government is different. Added to this complex situation, the positions in the state that are political appointed positions are in a seperate class. At the Federal level that is true also. I know in NM, they can write what ever salary into that political appointees contract, and they do not have to qualify. I am not sure this is true at the Federal level (salary restrictions).

However, these appointees in the state do have to go through a confirmation process. Right now the new Secretary of Education, who has little, if any experience in the class room is being challenged. In addition, she is from Texas, the birth state of or new Rep Gov, and also the state that heavily financed her campaign.

The way I see it, there are so many Union employees nationwide that have been out of work (Carpenter’s Union and Labor Unions in the NE)for several years. They’re just not going to take it anymore. They’re tired of listening to Obama’s budget cuts for SS and medicare. Now the new thing is cutting from teachers, nurses, public employees, telling us we need to sacrifice, when it’s the bankers and hedge fund operaters that caused the mortgage crisis in the first place and they are walking around scott free and unscathed.

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH and IBRAHIM BARZAK
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 1, 2011

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The mass demonstrations sweeping the Middle East are touching the Palestinian territories, where West Bank and Gaza Strip activists are trying to organize their own “Facebook revolutions.”

The Palestinian activists are inspired by the calls for democracy that toppled autocratic leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and threaten longtime rulers in Libya and Bahrain.

In recent weeks, activists using Facebook have brought hundreds of people onto streets of the West Bank, waving Palestinian flags and calling for change. Smaller gatherings have taken place in Gaza. The protesters hope to stage a massive demonstration in both areas on March 15.

Whether they can succeed is far from certain because of the unique situation of the Palestinians. In contrast to countries where crowds have rallied against a single, despised leader, the Palestinians face a series of intertwined problems, making it harder to rally around a common cause.

Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, areas wedged on different sides of Israel and ruled by rival governments. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority governs in the West Bank, where Israel’s military still retains overall control. The militant Islamic group Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007.

The Palestinian split has crippled efforts to negotiate an independent state from Israel. Repeated efforts to reconcile, including a Palestinian Authority proposal to hold new elections, have foundered.

The Facebook activists have divisions of their own. Some want the rival Palestinian governments to reconcile. Others demand they resign. Still others want to demonstrate against Israel’s occupation.

Activist Hasan Farahat, 22, said there was enough common ground. “Everybody is sick of the situation. We want work, we want the right to speak freely. We want freedom,” he said.

The governments see even the smallest demonstrations as a challenge to their rule.

On Monday, Hamas moved swiftly to break up a small demonstration in Gaza City where people called for Palestinian reconciliation. Hamas police arrested a protest organizer, seizing a tape from a German TV crew showing a security official slapping the man.

In previous protest attempts, Hamas security arrested activists and seized their phones and computers, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

The West Bank has seen about a dozen demonstrations, including two in Ramallah, where some 2,000 Palestinians demanded reconciliation. Others urged leaders to revoke interim peace agreements with Israel.

TEHRAN, Iran – Police in Tehran used tear gas and batons Tuesday to disperse anti-government protesters demanding the release of opposition leaders, with several people arrested in the biggest street clashes in Iran’s capital in more than two weeks, witnesses and opposition websites said.

Protesters rallied at several points in the capital, chanting “Death to the dictator” and urging authorities to free Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, whose family and supporters claim are now under full-time detention, according to kaleme.com.

Witnesses said riot police charged on protesters in central Tehran to try to scatter crowds. Some police took swipes at cars whose drivers were believed to be honking their horns in support of the demonstrators.

Family members and opposition activists say the two leaders have been moved from house arrest to a Tehran prison along with their wives. Iranian authorities deny the reports, but the two opposition leaders have not been seen in public or have posted statements on their websites in more than a week.

Mousavi and Karroubi were put under house arrest after they called for a Feb. 14 protest rally, the largest in more than a year following a relentless crackdown by Iranian authorities. Clashes between protesters and security forces during the demonstrations killed two and wounded dozens.

The opposition movement — dispirited and in disarray just a month ago — has been revived by inspiration from the Arab world’s political revolts and the reports of the detentions of Karroubi and Mousavi, who claims he was rightful winner of 2009 election and that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected through massive vote fraud.

Both Mousavi and Karroubi — who also ran in the June 2009 election — have been under increasing pressure from authorities who crushed street protests by their supporters.

The protests that swept Iran after the disputed election grew into a larger movement opposed to Iran’s ruling system. Hundreds of thousands peacefully took to the streets, but a heavy security crackdown crushed the protests.

Iran’s leadership has rejected calls by hardliners to bring the two to trial on anti-state charges, fearing that it could serve as a rallying point for the beleaguered opposition’s supporters. The current claims about their detentions, however, could also help to re-energize opposition forces.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran will not respond to international questions about the whereabouts of the two, adding that the country considers the matter a “completely domestic” affair.

The semiofficial news agency ISNA quoted state prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei as saying the two were not detained but did not elaborate. On Monday, he said authorities have cut all outside contact with them as part of a campaign to silence dissent.

However, the opposition and their relatives said they are being held in a military garrison in Tehran.

There has been no independent confirmation of their location.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday: “We obviously find the detention of opposition leaders to be unacceptable and we call on them to be treated well and released.”

Mehmanparast denounced outside pressures to clarify the status of the two opposition figures.

“The internal issues of our country are completely domestic and no country is and will be allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of our country,” he told reporters.

Mehmanparast said any “issues relating to” Mousavi and Karroubi “will be dealt in the framework of law by judicial authorities.”

What a performance by President Hillary Clinton in front of the HTPC.She has one of the most brilliant minds in world politics. so firm eloquent and better informed than anyone I have ever seen or heard.She has the glow of her convictions in her eyes and the fire in her belly to keep this democracy alive and respected around the world.BO and MO would rather be dancing with the stars and spending our money.

Final thought. I wonder if Gov. Walker attended the governor’s meeting in DC. That would explain what appeared to be an uncomfortable time lapse regarding the situation at home.
**************************
He did not attend but sent a message or called in a message.

Shadowfax
February 28th, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Is Hillary now the spokeswoman in chief of the military too?
************
hen why did we wait sooo longgg to send a boat to rescue our citizens? And then a very small one at that.
——-
I only posed the question as to IF she was the spokeswoman of the military, not the Commander in chief that ordered a boat.

Libya could become a peaceful democracy or face years of civil war, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told Congressional lawmakers.

Mrs Clinton appeared on Capitol Hill to urge Congress not to cut funds needed to deal with crises abroad. The comments came a day after the US began repositioning warships and military aircraft in the Libya region. Mrs Clinton repeated demands that Col Muammar Gaddafi “must go now, without further violence or delay”.

“The entire [Middle East] region is changing, and a strong and strategic American response will be essential, Mrs Clinton said to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in prepared testimony. “In the years ahead, Libya could become a peaceful democracy, or it could face protracted civil war. The stakes are high.

“And this is an unfolding example of how we use the combined assets of diplomacy, development and defence to protect our interests and advance our values. She added that the US was working to translate the “world’s outrage into action and results”.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, told reporters in Washington the US would continue to place pressure on Col Gaddafi until he steps down, while working to stabilise oil prices and avert a possible humanitarian crisis.

“We are going to keep the pressure on Gaddafi until he steps down and allows the people of Libya to express themselves freely and determine their own future,” Ms Rice told US media.

Considering no-fly zone

Mrs Clinton has said implementing a no-fly zone in Libya was still being considered by the US, although she acknowledged there would be drawbacks with such a move.

Speaking in front of a separate panel on Tuesday, General James Mattis, a top US military commander in the Middle East, said the military would have to destroy Libyan air defences in order to establish a no-fly zone in the country. Gen Mattis added that a no-fly zone would deter Col Gaddafi’s regime from bombing demonstrators as they protest against the government.

If such measures were taken, US commanders could turn to the USS Enterprise, currently in the Red Sea, as well as the amphibious ship the USS Kearsarge, which has a fleet of helicopters and about 2,000 Marines aboard.

Meanwhile, Col Gaddafi has played down protests in the country and insisted that all his people love him. His comments came amid reports that he is attempting to regain control of rebel areas in western Libya.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday warned Republicans to reverse plans to cut the US foreign aid budget or undermine US efforts to stabilize a North Africa and Middle East in turmoil.

Clinton also told Republican lawmakers that their proposed cuts for 2012 would hurt US efforts to roll back the insurgency in Afghanistan, build a stable, democratic Iraq and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

She highlighted how US diplomacy and the US Agency for International Development are helping to advance US national interests by seeking to end the bloodshed and help civilians in Libya, a major oil producer.

“This is an unfolding example of how we use the combined assets ….of diplomacy, development, and defense to protect American security and interests and advance our values,” Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“It is the most effective — and cost-effective — way to sustain and advance our security across the world. And it is only possible with a budget that supports all the tools in our national security arsenal,” she said.

In Iraq, Clinton said, US diplomats and civilian experts are “poised to keep the peace” after the withdrawal of nearly US 100,000 troops, who cost the United States much more to deploy than civilians.

In Afghanistan, a recent surge in US troops and civilians is paving the way “for our diplomatic surge to support Afghan-led reconciliation that could end the conflict and put Al-Qaeda on the run,” the chief US diplomat said.

“We have imposed the toughest sanctions to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” she added.

“And we are working to open political systems, economies, and societies at a remarkable moment in the history of the Middle East and to support peaceful, orderly, irreversible democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia,” she said.

“Our progress is significant, but our work is ongoing. These missions are vital to our national security, … and now would be the wrong time to pull back,” Clinton added.

Late last night, I came back from round-the-clock meetings in Geneva to discuss the unfolding events in Libya. And I’d like to begin by offering a quick update.
We have joined the Libyan people in demanding that Qaddafi must go – now, without further violence or delay – and we are working to translate the world’s outrage into action and results.

Marathon diplomacy at the United Nations and with our allies has yielded quick, aggressive steps to pressure and isolate Libya’s leaders. USAID is focused on Libya’s food and medical supplies and is dispatching two expert humanitarian teams to help those fleeing the violence and who are moving into Tunisia and Egypt, which is posing tremendous burdens on those two countries. Our combatant commands are positioning assets to prepare to support these critical civilian humanitarian missions. And we are taking no options off the table so long as the Libyan Government continues to turn its guns on its own people.

The entire region is changing, and a strong and strategic American response is essential. In the years ahead, Libya could become a peaceful democracy, or it could face protracted civil war, or it could descend into chaos. The stakes are high. And this is an unfolding example of using the combined assets of smart power – diplomacy, development, and defense – to protect American security and interests and advance our values. This integrated approach is not just how we respond to the crisis of the moment. It is the most effective – and most cost-effective – way to sustain and advance our security across the world. And it is only possible with a budget that supports all the tools in our national security arsenal – which is what we are here to discuss.

The American people are justifiably concerned about our national debt. I share that concern. But they also want responsible investments in our future that will make us stronger at home and continuing our leadership abroad. Just two years after President Obama and I first asked you to renew our investment in development and diplomacy, we are already seeing tangible returns for our national security:

In Iraq, almost 100,000 troops have come home, and civilians are poised to keep the peace. In Afghanistan, integrated military and civilian surges have helped set the stage for our diplomatic surge to support Afghan-led reconciliation that can end the conflict and put al-Qaida on the run. We have imposed the toughest ever sanctions to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. We have reengaged as a leader in the Pacific and in our own hemisphere. We have signed trade deals to promote American jobs and nuclear weapons treaties to protect our people. We have worked with Northern and Southern Sudanese to achieve a peaceful referendum and prevent a return to civil war. We are working to open up political systems, economies, and societies at a remarkable moment in the history of the Middle East, and to support peaceful, orderly, irreversible democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia.

Our progress is significant, but our work is far from over. These missions are vital to our national security, and I believe with all my heart now would be the wrong time to pull back.

The FY 2012 budget we discuss today will allow us to keep pressing ahead. It is a lean budget for lean times. I did launch the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review to help us maximize the impact of every dollar we spend. We scrubbed this budget and made painful but responsible cuts. We cut economic assistance to Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia by 15 percent. We cut development assistance to over 20 countries by more than half.
And this year, for the first time, our request is divided into two parts. Our core budget request of $47 billion supports programs and partnerships in every country but North Korea. It is essentially flat from 2010 levels. The second part of our request funds the extraordinary, temporary portion of our war effort the same way that the Pentagon’s request is funded: in a separate Overseas Contingency Operations account known as OCO. Instead of covering our war expenses through supplemental appropriations, we are now taking a more transparent approach that reflects our fully integrated civilian-military efforts on the ground. Our share of the President’s $126 billion request for these exceptional wartime costs in the frontline states is 8.7 billion.

Let me walk you through a few of our key investments. First, this budget funds vital civilian missions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, al-Qaida is under pressure as never before. Alongside our military offensive, we are engaged in a major civilian effort that is helping to build up the governments, economies, and civil societies of both countries and undercut the insurgency.
Now, these two surges, the military and civilian surge, set the stage for a third: a diplomatic push in support of an Afghan process to split the Taliban from al-Qaida, bring the conflict to an end, and help stabilize the region. Our military commanders are emphatic they cannot succeed without a strong civilian partner. Retreating from our civilian surge in Afghanistan with our troops still in the field would be a grave mistake.

Equally important is our assistance to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation with strong ties and interests in Afghanistan. We are working to deepen our partnership and keep it focused on addressing Pakistan’s political and economic challenges as well as our shared threats.

And as to Iraq, after so much sacrifice, we do have a chance to help the Iraqi people build a stable, democratic country in the heart of the Middle East. As troops come home, our civilians are taking the lead, helping Iraqis resolve conflicts peacefully and training their police.

Shifting responsibilities from soldiers to civilians actually saves taxpayers a great deal of money. For example, the military’s total OCO request worldwide will drop by $45 billion from 2010 as our troops come home. Our costs, the State Department and USAID, will increase by less than 4 billion. Every business owner I know would gladly invest $4 to save $45.
Second, even as our civilians help bring today’s wars to a close, we are working to prevent tomorrow’s. This budget devotes over $4 billion to sustaining a strong U.S. presence in volatile places where our security and interests are at stake. In Yemen, it provides security, development, and humanitarian assistance to deny al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula a safe haven and to promote the kind of stability that can lead to a better outcome than what might otherwise occur. It focuses on these same goals in Somalia. It helps Northern and Southern Sudan chart a peaceful future. It helps Haiti rebuild. And it proposes a new Global Security Contingency Fund that would pool resources and expertise with the Defense Department to respond quickly as new challenges emerge.

This budget also strengthens our allies and partners. It trains Mexican police to take on violent cartels and secure our southern border. It provides nearly $3.1 billion for Israel and supports Jordan and the Palestinians. It helps Egypt and Tunisia build stable and credible democracy, and it supports security assistance to over 130 nations.

Now, some may say, well, what does this get us in America? Let me give you one example. Over the years, these funds have created valuable ties with foreign militaries and trained, in Egypt, a generation of officers who refused to fire on their own people. And that was not something that happened overnight. It was something that happened because of relationships that had been built over decades. Across the board, we are working to ensure that all who share the benefits of our spending also share the burdens of addressing common challenges.
Third, we are making targeted investments in human security. We have focused on hunger, disease, climate change, and humanitarian emergencies because these challenges not only threaten the security of individuals – they are the seeds of future conflicts. If we want to lighten the burden on future generations, we have to make investments that makes our world more secure for them.

Our largest investment is in global health programs, including those launched by former President George W. Bush. These programs stabilize entire societies that have been and are being devastated by HIV, malaria, and other diseases. They save the lives of mothers and children and halt the spread of deadly diseases.

Global food prices are approaching an all-time high. Three years ago, this led to protests and riots in dozens of countries. Food security is a cornerstone of global stability, and we are helping farmers grow more food, drive economic growth, and turn aid recipients into trading partners.
Climate change threatens food security, human security, and national security. Our budget builds resilience against droughts, floods, and other weather disasters; promotes clean energy and preserves tropical forests. It also gives us leverage to persuade China, India, and other nations to do their essential part in meeting this urgent threat.
Fourth, we are committed to making our foreign policy a force for domestic economic renewal and creating jobs here at home. We are working aggressively to promote sustained economic growth, level the playing fields, and open markets. To give just one example, the eight Open Skies Agreements that we have signed over the last two years will open dozens of new markets to American carriers. The Miami International Airport, Madam Chairman, which supports nearly 300[i] jobs –including many in your district – will see a great deal of new business thanks to agreements with Miami’s top trading partners, Brazil and Colombia.

Fifth and finally, this budget funds the people and the platforms that make possible everything I’ve described. It allows us to sustain diplomatic relations with 190 countries. It funds political officers who are literally, right now, out working to defuse political crises and promote our values; development officers who are spreading opportunity and promoting stability; and economic officers who wake up every day thinking about how to help put Americans back to work.
Several of you have already asked our Department about the safety of your constituents in the Middle East. Well, this budget also helps fund the consular officers who evacuated over 2,600 people thus far from Egypt and Libya – and nearly 17,000 from Haiti. They issued 14 million passports last year and served as our first line of defense against would-be terrorists seeking visas to enter our country.

I’d like to say just a few words about the funding for the rest of 2011. As I told Speaker Boehner, Chairman Rogers, and many others, the 16 percent cut for State and USAID that passed the House last month would be devastating for our national security. It would force us to scale back dramatically on critical missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

And as Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen, General Petraeus have all emphasized to the Congress, we need a fully engaged and fully funded national security team, and that includes State and USAID.

Now, there have always been moments of temptation in our country to resist obligations beyond our borders. But each time we have shrunk from global leadership, events have summoned us back, often cruelly, to reality. We saved money in the short term when we walked away from Afghanistan after the Cold War. But those savings came at an unspeakable cost – one we are still paying, ten years later, in money and lives.

Generations of Americans, including my own, have grown up successful and safe because we chose to lead the world in tackling the greatest challenges. We invested the resources to build up democratic allies and vibrant trading partners. And we did not shy away from defending our values, promoting our interests, and seizing the opportunities of each new era.
I have now traveled more than any Secretary of State in the last two years, and I can tell you from firsthand experience the world has never been in greater need of the qualities that distinguish us: our openness and innovation, our determination, our devotion to universal values. Everywhere I travel, I see people looking to us for leadership. Sometimes I see them after they have condemned us publicly on their television channels and then come to us privately and say we can’t do this without America.

This is a source of great strength, a point of pride, and I believe an unbelievable opportunity for the American people. But it is an achievement. It is not a birthright. It requires resolve and it requires resources.

I look forward to working closely together with you to do what is necessary to keep our country safe and maintain American leadership in this fast-changing world. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

BigCatLover
March 1st, 2011 at 12:04 pm
I’be been out of town since last night but just walked in the door at home here to see Hillary Clinton testifying in front of the House foreign Policy Committee
—————————————
Thanks for that link BCL. I’m not sure someone of my low pay grade needed the foreign policy briefing, but I did need to watch and witness the competence and otherwise human qualities being displayed… even if well past midnight for me here. Hillary sure was well respected by most of the committee, save one fella at the start of my viewing who wouldn’t let her finish her sentences. She does better tired than Barry the Zero does on his best day… but we all know that.

The National Governors Association, which concluded its Winter meeting in Washington yesterday by applauding a predictable demonstration of Obama sophistry, has announced that it has named Gov. Walker of Wisconsin to head its panel on health and human services.

In his infamous Wisconsin “budget repair bill,” Walker has decreed that the state Secretary of Health and Human Services is empowered “to override state Medicaid laws as [he] sees fit and institute sweeping changes,” including reducing benefits and limiting eligibility. The specifics of his bureaucratically couched proposals have led milwaukeecountyfirst.com to label him “the one-man death panel.”

In his NGA post, Walker will be working with a new National Governors Association executive director, whose expertise is slashing health care costs. The executive director, Dan Crippen, will in April replace Ray Scheppach, who has held the post for 28 years.

Crippen is a former executive director of the failed Merrill Lynch, including its International Advisory Council, who showed himself worthy of that post by his performance as director of the Congressional Budget Office in George W’s first term. Before that he was a top domestic policy adviser to the Reagan Administration. One bio notes “He is a consultant for health care providers including developers of cardiac devices and bio-engineered pharmaceuticals. He serves on several boards of companies in the health care industry, both public and private; serves on the national nominating committee for the National Association of Securities Dealers; [and] conducts research on health care.”

Again, Gov. Walker and the first two posters don’t read or listen. Public employees said they are willing to pay what the Governor demands for health and pensions. THE problem is Walker’s stripping of COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.
Hello. [33 thumbs up, 98 down]

Walker could have passed the bond restructuring bill as a separate bill
weeks ago as all previous governor have done. He did not have to stuff it
as a line item in his self-titled “Bomb” bill. Clearly the cost rests upon the
gov. [6 up, 37 down]

===================

Right, as I’ve been saying. Like Obamacare, this could have been broken up into separate measures, each getting full debate, and the deadline stuff done first. The actual percentages don’t seem to be in dispute, the union has agreed to them!

Great photo on front page of today’s NY Times, with Hillary Clinton looming large over gathering of world leaders at the UN Human Rights Council:

nytimes.com/images/2011/03/01/nytfrontpage/scan.jpg

Looking like leader of the Free World, issuing strong statements, in this related article:

nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/africa/01military.html

WASHINGTON — The United States began moving warships toward Libya and froze $30 billion in the country’s assets on Monday as the administration declared all options on the table in its diplomatic, economic and military campaign to drive Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from power.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the administration was conferring with allies about imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. Such a move would likely be carried out only under a mandate from the United Nations or NATO, but Mrs. Clinton’s blunt confirmation that it was under consideration was clearly intended to ratchet up the pressure on Colonel Qaddafi and his dwindling band of loyalists.

“Qaddafi has lost the legitimacy to govern, and it is time for him to go without further violence or delay,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters after a special meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council. “No option is off the table,” she said, adding “that of course includes a no-fly zone.”

[A] majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. [….]

[ pretty large margins ]

A majority of respondents who have NO UNION MEMBERS living in their households opposed both cuts in pay or benefits and taking away the collective bargaining rights of public employees. [….]

The poll found that 45 percent of those surveyed said they believed that governors and state lawmakers who are trying to reduce the pay or benefits of public workers were doing so to reduce budget deficits, while 41 percent said they thought they were doing so to weaken unions’ power. [….]

The poll found that 37 percent of those surveyed believe that labor unions have “too much influence” on American life and politics, while 48 percent said they had the “right amount” or “too little” influence.

Well looky here where this windbag went…of coarse…its only slightly illegal…but when the mob runs the WH and President who gives a shit is in office..nothing will be done about it.

——-
So Mr. windbag is gonna reap in 1.2 mil just to try and keep the movie screeners off of the Internet. The screeners wouldn’t be there if the ‘important’ folks they send them to didn’t upload them to websites. A battle between the geeks and the RIAA, geeks will always find a way around them.

stall a proposal by Mr. Walker that would strip public employee unions of nearly all their collective bargaining powers, allow publicly owned power plants to be sold with what critics say is little guarantee of fair value, and give the governor’s appointees what public health advocates describe as expansive new powers to limit health care coverage for lower-income residents.

What a freakin’ chickenshit…..the Huckster wants to take the Fifth and pass the research (and possible blame if dirt is later found out)…

—–

[snip]

As a potential Republican candidate for president, Mr. Huckabee has previously dismissed questions about the authenticity of Mr. Obama’s birth records.

“If there was any shred of truth to it, Hillary Clinton and her wonderful investigative opposition (research) machine would have found it and would have used it,” Mr. Huckabee said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program just last week. “I think is a waste of energy and time.”

Lets put it this way- The Republicans would like seeing the Unions broken. However, the unions have learned a hard lesson- Obama cannot be TRUSTED. Yes, I believe, they will back Obama stealthfully and silently. They will do like they did in 08′- Put up a token candidate like McCain and live happily ever after sharing a mattress w/Obama for 4 more years.

I watched Prime Minister David Cameron addressing his House of Commons on c-span last night about Libya. During question time he had to take hits on the fact that he has cut the British Navy to the bare bones and that when they needed to send a ship to get British citizens out of Libya, all they had left in service was one old broken down ship. He also had to affirm that England will continue to urge America with their ‘special relationship’ to pledge to put some teeth into the threats to Gaddafi to get out and he pledged to be ready to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya.http://www.c-span.org/Events/British-Prime-Minister-David-Cameron-Remarks-on-Libya/10737419889-1/

The new poll reported in this morning’s Times will, I suspect, come as a shock to many political commentators. Quite a few news analyses of the assault on public-sector workers have simply assumed that the move was a political winner, with little if any thought given to the possibility that the general public wasn’t actually ready to go along. But whaddya know: while people don’t necessarily love unions — hey, I personally don’t necessarily love unions — most people apparently see them as having a legitimate role.

Again, I’m having Iraq flashbacks: there was a prolonged period when the inside-the-Beltway view was that only crackpots believed that Bush had misled us into war, even as polling indicated a substantial fraction, and eventually a majority, of the public already believed just that:

So, times are tough in the drug research industry too? It all depends on wheter you’re on the inside looking out or on the outside looking in:

“Last week, my lab partner and I sat in on a webinar from the American Chemical Society (ACS) discussing employment and employment trends of its members. Now, the fact that the ACS is even having a webinar like this is significant. It’s because so many chemists are out of work. In previous recessions, this bloc of well educated, technically savvy workers was able to weather the economic downturn relatively well. Not this recession.”
Rest here:http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/

That post is followed by one about the view looking at the Wisconsin union fight on the outside looking in.

“But others suggested that unions had perhaps had outlived their usefulness. Carrie Fox, who works at a billboard advertising company, said she hoped that the battle would encourage other governors to rein in public- and private-sector unions.

“I know there was a point for unions back in the day because people were being abused,” she said. “But now there’s workers’ rights; there’s laws that protect us.”

Riiiigghht. Protect us from WHAT, exactly? If you can casually sweep away the promises you made to your workers who negotiated in good faith, what real rights does a worker have anymore?”

Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up Tuesday with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party because they are African American.

Holder’s frustration over the criticism became evident during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing as Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding a club stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia.

The Attorney General seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culberson read in which former Democratic activist Bartle Bull called the incident the most serious act of voter intimidation he had witnessed in his career.

kingsgrove,
Well I read the article and now I know who is behind this democracy/chaos in the ME….well its little Bushit….well he and Dinnerjacket want to bring in the 12th Iman….
Ron Paul needs to go back and deliver babies and let the real diplomat do her freaking job.
He just pist me off, questioning Hillary like that!

Here’s a current bill already attacking workers’ rights laws — child labor in this case. Note that it’s labor unions that are publicizing this and protecting the current law.

from the St. Louis Beacon:

State Sen. Jane Cunningham says her quest to change Missouri’s child labor laws is driven by her belief that the current restrictions are “implying that government can make a better decision than a parent.”

But Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, takes exception to critics who contend that her proposed changes, contained in SB 222, would put children younger than 16 in danger.

Cunningham cites a series of provisions in her bill that bar children younger than 16 from working in certain professions or workplaces deemed dangerous, such as mines, quarries, stone-cutting or plants manufacturing explosives.

As it stands, current Missouri law bars regular employment of children younger than 14 — except in specific professions such as acting — and imposes strict restrictions on employed children age 14 and 15, including the hours they are allowed to work. Children age 14 and 15 must obtain signed permits from the school they attend.

“This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age 14. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child aged 14 or 15 obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under 16 will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.”

Cunningham’s objections extend to the current law’s requirement that children 14 or 15 work no more than three hours a day on school days, no more than eight hours on a non-school day, and that they cannot work before 7 a.m. or after 9 p.m.

“The hour restrictions are so tight,” she said. “There are many jobs where you can work after 9 p.m.,” such as restaurants.

She also objects to allowing the state’s director of Labor Standards to walk into businesses to check on their employment of children.

A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, “Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.”

Eric Holder accepted the position of AG of the Justice Dept. If he is unable to perform the duties of the US Attorney General without personalizing a bias for people of color; then he should step down and proceed to look for gainful employment elsewhere.

O.M.G.
Check this terrifying clip of a Wisconsin congressman being chased down and heckled by a crowd of protesters. Just imagine what would have happened had the TEA Party rallies ever reveled this kind of behavior. The country has truly gone mad. BO has succeeded in dividing us. This is shocking.

This is why I say the RCP polling numbers on Obama are fraudulent, and we ought not to waste any time worrying about them:
—————————–

CBS poll showing strong support for public unions unmasked

Ed Morrissey does a great job of unmasking the actual bias behind the poll. Have at it my little mobstas.

First here’s the CBS report which makes special note that while there are some people who may not want to pay more in taxes, they may be being led astray by big corporations … because unbelievably … most people don’t mind paying more taxes if it means public sector unions can live more comfortably than themselves. Christie’s comment at the end is classic.

But Ed Morrissey does a great job drilling into the poll numbers and confirming what you know in your heart … only a public sector employee (or Democrat) could possible prefer paying higher taxes to fund pensions people in the private sector can’t hope to ever have.

First, the partisan split in the sample gave a ten-point advantage to Democrats. Their sample for this poll had a D/R/I split of 36/26/31, an absurd sample for political polling. In December, Rasmussen’s general-population survey put Republicans ahead, 36.0% to 34.7% for Democrats.
And then he adds this.

Finally, 25% of respondents are either public employees or share a household with a public employee. Federal employees comprise less than 2% of the workforce at around 2 million. Overall, the US has 22.22 million government employees out of an employed workforce of 130.27 million, according to the Current Employment Statistics survey at the BLS. Government employment accounts for 17% of all workers, so a sample consisting of 25% public-sector households for a survey of adults (not registered voters) seems a little off.

You do have to wonder if the wizards at CBS thought they could actually get away with this? But why wonder, right Chris?

President Hillary Clinton really showed the tough stuff she is made of in her hearing this evening on
on C-Span.She made the Gravytrainers look hapless and hopeless.She will be back at 9am in the morning.She
makes the male sleeze no balls look pathetic.Stay tough and resolute Madam President.We need you.

And this by the way is why Bambi has retreated in any showing of public support for unions. He is doing his own polling and it is showing that the support for the public sector unions is not as great as Big Media pollsters are trying to make if appear. The voters are more concerned about possible bankruptcy than in the preservation of newly won collective bargaining rights. Thus, instead of supporting unions publicly, he makes silly little speeches, where he sets up a straw man and shoots it down, hoping that the ignoranti will accept words in lieu of action. As I have said before, the unions totally misplayed their hands on this one. They failed to realize that you cannot repeal the laws of economics through mass action, and when mass action turns violent as it surely will, the unions will be toast. The smart people realize that this whole thing is a set up by the elites, to winnow down the middle class, and unload the burden of our aging population–and Obama is their puppet.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised if we never see a contestant from Wisconsin appearing on Jeopardy anytime soon.
____________________

Wis. governor: Ax $900 million from education

Amid protests over union rights, Republican argues that public worker concessions are essential

MADISON, Wis. — After focusing for weeks on his proposal to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights, Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday presented his full budget proposal — a plan that cuts $1.5 billion in aid to public schools and government but avoids any tax or fee increases, furloughs or widespread layoffs.

Walker said the cuts could be paid for in large part by forcing government employees to pay more for their pension and health care benefits. But his proposal to do that — and to eliminate most collective bargaining — remains in limbo after Senate Democrats fled the state to prevent a vote.

“This is a reform budget,” Walker said in prepared remarks. “It is about getting Wisconsin working again, and to make that happen, we need a balanced budget that works — and an environment where the private sector can create 250,000 jobs over the next four years.”

Assembly Democrats refused to stand and greet the governor. His plan also drew derision from others facing cuts.

Walker’s budget places “the entire burden of Wisconsin’s budget shortfall on our children, our most vulnerable citizens in need of health care and long-term care, and our dedicated public employees,” said Robert Kraig, director of the consumer advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

Doing so is Walker’s “own value choice, not an economic necessity forced on him by others,” Kraig said.

Walker’s proposals have stirred a national debate over public-sector unions and drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the Capitol for three weeks.

The governor released his two-year budget in part to support his argument that public worker concessions are essential to confront a projected $3.6 billion shortfall.

“Our state cannot grow if our people are weighed down paying for a larger and larger government, a government that pays its workers unsustainable benefits that are out of line with the private sector,” he said. “We need a leaner and cleaner state government.”

By eliminating most collective bargaining, Walker says, state agencies, local governments and school districts will have flexibility to react quickly to the cuts he outlined during a joint session of the Legislature convened under heavy security.

Even though Walker isn’t ordering immediate layoffs, his budget will put tremendous pressure on schools and local governments, which will be asked to shoulder huge cuts without raising property taxes to make up the difference.

Walker’s budget includes a nearly 9 percent cut in aid to schools, which would amount to a reduction of nearly $900 million. The governor also proposed requiring school districts to reduce their property tax authority by an average of $550 per pupil.

Since 1993, the state’s property tax limits have gradually risen to reflect increasing costs, and reducing them makes it more difficult for schools to make up the lost money.

Additionally, cities would get nearly $60 million less in aid, an 8.8 percent cut, while counties would lose over $36 million, a 24 percent reduction. They would not be allowed to increase property taxes except to account for new construction.

Walker estimates that his controls on property taxes would save $736 over the next two years for the owner of a home valued at the median price of $161,300.

He’s also proposing a $500 million cut to Medicaid, which would be achieved through a number of changes that include increasing co-pays and deductibles and requiring participants in SeniorCare to be also be enrolled in Medicare Part D.

Walker asked for $82 million in tax cuts, including an expanded exclusion for capital gains realized on investments made in Wisconsin-based businesses. The Legislature previously approved more than $117 million in Walker-backed tax cuts that take effect later this year.

The budget also cuts funding at most state agencies, by 10 percent, except for salary and benefits.

He would permanently eliminate 735 positions that have been vacant for more than a year. Some other jobs could be cut as Walker moved to consolidate juvenile prisons and make other changes, but no widespread layoffs were envisioned. State spending over the next two years would go up a paltry 1.3 percent.

Walker also targets many law changes passed by Democrats in recent years. He proposed undoing changes made by Democrats to allow prisoners to earn time off their sentences for good behavior.

Instead, Walker would reinstitute a truth-in-sentencing law that he sponsored while a member of the Assembly.

He would also no longer allow children of illegal immigrants who attend state universities and colleges to pay in-state tuition.

As expected, Walker proposed removing the flagship Madison campus from the University of Wisconsin system, leaving 12 other four-year campuses and 13 two-year universities. The system has been ordered to study a similar move for the Milwaukee campus.
____________________________

This governor reminds me of the Republican governor who just retired
from RI after 8 crappy years of wielding an axe cutting funding from every possible state funded agency. After 8 yrs of his Republican policies, our state stands 49th out of 50 in economic standing one digit above Michigan. Gov Carceiri announced he would like to run for a position in the General Assembly. The state would be better served if we all chipped in and sent him to The Johnson and Wales Culinary School where exceptional talent with a butcher knife is well received.

As for Morrissey’s claim about people wanting to PAY more taxes — that doesn’t occur in the NYT write-up of the poll or in the PDF of the poll itself.

When people say they would favor increasing taxes, they usually mean taxing the rich or taxing certain businesses — not themselves. 😉 So the MOrrissey article would seem to be a wee bit deceptive on this point.

ALso, from the Morrissey article:
” Government employment accounts for 17% of all workers, so a sample consisting of 25% public-sector households for a survey of adults (not registered voters) seems a little off.”

nytimes.com/2011/03/01/us/01poll.html?_r=2&hp
” A majority of respondents who have NO UNION MEMBERS living in their households opposed both cuts in pay or benefits and taking away the collective bargaining rights of public employees.”

Gee, maybe the black panthers are demeaning themselves and “your people”. Bringing a billy club and intimidating people outside of a polling place is wrong, and reflects poorly on the person’s sense of fairness and justice.

Walker said the cuts could be paid for in large part by forcing government employees to pay more for their pension and health care benefits.

====================

The employees have ALREADY agreed to that. The remaining issues are loss of almost all collective bargaining rights, czars making no-bid sales and cuts to health services, and ‘right to work’ provisions. None of which is necessary for the ‘deadlines’ Walker claims (dishonestly – see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/us/01wisconsin.html?ref=us ).

Yes, Walker and all the other sheep Republican’s that say the financial concessions that the union members agreed to – are not enough to balance the budget. They want to destroy collective bargaining, and the unions strength in numbers to help the Republicans gain donation money for their campaigns from big Corporations.
The Republican lie just like Obama and his bros.

No wonder American’s don’t trust politicians.
I only trust the Clintons, no one else.

Well this is what happened…I was listening to the video of Hillary that is posted above and in walks the CT repairman…he says as he looks at my computer screen..”Is that who I think it is”, I said “who do think this is”…Hillary Clinton he says.
Then he goes off on this tirade of how horrid she looks, why she has to have this huge entirage with her everywhere she goes and she should not be part of this administration because she is causing trouble within the administration.
Then he says “Whats Bill doing?
..is that him there behind her with his hands folded”, OK at this point I am pist…my voice is three octives higher than normal….I said well she looks bad because she is the only one working in the whole administration. He goes off again and saying she isn’t doing anything but spending money we don’t have and look at this healthcare bill….THen I said OK you republicans needs to realize that the healthcare program that passed was the one you guys offered in 92′ and Obama folded and gave you what you wanted and you guys better wake up and realize the republicans spend just as much money as the dims….he says well I’m mad at them too.

Then he goes off again and tells me look at how much money Bill makes and how much money Hillary makes….I said well I just happen to remember when Bill was things were pretty good and I think he did a great job as President and I don’t give one rats ass about his BJ and I wished he’d got several more while he was in office and I am damn happy they have money because they earned it. Newt all the while calling CLinton out was screwing someone at the same time his wife was dying of Cancer….well he couldn’t say a damn thing about that…

The crux of this story is that this nation is divided more than its ever been in my lifetime…and I wish we could find out the true culprits of this because they need to be tried in the Hague for crimes against the United States and mankind.

WHY IS IT THAT WHEN MEN LOOK TIRED….THEY ARE WORKING TOO HARD….WHEN WOMEN LOOK TIRED…THEY LOOK LIKE SHIT???? I AM SICK OF THIS!! The Clinton’s are true Americans who were the last in the office of the Presidency that gave one shit about the common man and yet the IDIOTS in this country are so fucking stupid they can’t see it….

I told him hey I voted for McCain who rolled over for Obama to win…he agreed that McCain did and there was massive cheating going on….I said massive cheating going on during the election, try massive cheating going on during the primary and she should be Potus and not him….well he did not agree she should be anything near the President and who/what gives her the right to tell Gdaffy to get the hell out of office….he said we shouldn’t give a crap if that dictator is killing his own people….then I realized he was a crazy Ron Paul supporter!

Nevertheless…my blood pressure was up for hours after that!

I just don’t know how much longer I can keep up with this politics thing….its just unbearable what is going on…I’ve quit watching TV, but when all I do now is just keep up with this blog and I’m bombarded at my job with this kind of crap….I just really don’t need this crap! I don’t know who is causing all this distention in America and around the world but its needs to stop or people are going to go ballistic….me I’m just going to quit even looking on this blog. People are just too crazy anymore and stupid on top of that! I’m too old for this crap…I’m liable to blow a blood vessel or something…
Obama needs to step down and FOx needs to be shut down…and MSNBC needs to be shutdown…then some peace may come back to America!

Eric Holder must be nutz….is there anyone besides Hillary in this administation a well balanced individual?? I don’t think so….I think they are smoking or snorting something up their nose….cause these people seem like the ones I take care of at the psyc hospital.

As for complaining that a poll sampled too many Dems and not enough GOP, or vice versa, doesn’t most polling correct for this when figuring the results?

Here’s an example:

[I]f some groups are underrepresented and the degree of underrepresentation can be quantified, then sample weights can correct the bias.
For example, a hypothetical population might include 10 million men and 10 million women. Suppose that a biased sample of 100 patients included 20 men and 80 women. A researcher could correct for this imbalance by attaching a weight of 2.5 for each male and 0.625 for each female. This would adjust any estimates to achieve the same expected value as a sample that included exactly 50 men and 50 women [….]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_bias#Statistical_corrections_for_a_biased_sample

confloyd: Eric Holder must be nutz
————————————–
Eric Holder is obviously not fit for the job. There was all of this hullabaloo about whether voters were ready for an African American. Perhaps that thought in reverse is what should have been considered.

As the U.S. gears up to push Israeli-Palestinian talks tomorrow, the Palestinian Authority has been engaged in an intense effort to convince the Hamas terrorist organization to join it in a new unity government.

According to a senior PA official, the PA has been sending mediators to Hamas in an effort to persuade it into a unity deal.

The PA is ready to give Hamas full official security control of the Gaza Strip if the Islamist organization agrees to form a unity government, the official said.

In 2007, Hamas seized Gaza from the PA and has since maintained a de facto government in the territory. While Hamas largely controls Gaza, the PA still has militias there that are influential in key areas.

The PA official, who spoke to WND yesterday on condition of anonymity, said that Hamas would not need to recognize the existence of Israel as a precondition for entering a new unity government.

He said Hamas is being asked to commit itself to previous Palestinian agreements, which would include those signed with Israel, without actually recognizing the specific agreements with Israel. The PA official admitted this request is seemingly contradictory.

The PA official told WND that recent developments in Egypt and the greater Arab world force the Palestinian leadership to take a public position against the U.S.

“The Obama administration’s abandonment of [U.S. ally President Hosni] Mubarak in Egypt sent a big sign to the moderate Arab world that we can no longer depend on American support,” said the official.

The official further argued that popular sentiment on the Palestinian street dictates the PA must orient itself away from the U.S.

Indeed, the PA’s official media outlets have been railing against the U.S. in recent weeks, with twenty-eight PA municipalities even announcing boycotts of “the American consulate, its diplomats, and the American institutions in Jerusalem,” according to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch.

In recent days, activists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, motivated by unrest throughout the Middle East, have been trying to organize their own “Facebook revolutions” and have called for protests against the Palestinian leadership.

In direct response to the protests that already toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, the PA two weeks ago announced it will finally hold long delayed parliamentary and presidential elections in September.

As the PA attempts to forge a unity deal with Hamas, whose charter calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel, the U.S. is preparing to call for a new round of talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.

Officials from the so-called Mideast Quartet – the U.S., UN, EU and Russia – are planning to meet Israeli and Palestinian representatives in Brussels tomorrow in an effort to jump start negotiations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been debating whether to send Israel’s senior negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, to the Quartet conference.

Netanyahu has publicly voiced his reservations about the conference, fearing that by sending his representative there he would face mounting international pressure to resume talks at a time the Middle East is facing uncertainty and instability.

If you were watching the video Jan posted, the lighting was poor making everything look dark and dingy. I’ve seen other videos of her that day and she looked great.

You have to factor in, the Chicago Cartel is going to use every subtle trick in the book making Hillary look bad.

I noticed it in the front page picture of her in the NYT- they showed her on the Jumbo Tron with everyone looking away from her as if they were disinterested in listening to her speaking.

Hillary has to be very careful right now. They are trying to get her to paint herself into a corner. I know she wants to be seen as strong, and she is, but she has to back off a little and put the onus for action on Obama. This is trap door time for her. Afterall, even the Republicans have her in their cross-hairs. Hillary is being stalked on two fronts, she needs to back away for a bit and watch at arms length what is going on around her… before they catch her up…like they did Palin.

When you stand back and think about the ME situation for a minute asking yourself, how did all these dictators come to power within a few years of each other.. except for Arabia and the UAE?

These dictators have been in power coincidentally for just about the same length of time roughly 30 to 35 yrs. Think back 30-35 yrs remembering who was president at the time and who was his VP, who happened to be the Director of the CiA?

Those regimes were toppled without leaving any fingerprints pointing to US involvement.

Oprah Winfrey’s new television channel is floundering in the ratings as it struggles to pull in viewers.

The OWN channel, which launched two months ago, is being watched by only 135,000 people at any one time.

The ratings are 10 per cent lower than for the cable channel it replaced which was called Discovery Health.

And only 45,000 of those watching are women aged 25 to 54, the audience the channel is being aimed at.

Miss Winfrey, 57, has urged patience and supporters say ratings will improve when the chat show host begins appearing more regularly herself towards the end of the year.

She will still be busy filming “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for the ABC network until September, but will then be able to devote more time to her own channel. That will include having her own show two or three nights a week.

Her current, Chicago-based show has run for 25 years and made her one of the most powerful people in America. It currently attracts seven million viewers daily.

OWN, which is based in Los Angeles, launched on New Year’s Day and pulled in 1.2 million viewers, but that has declined.

The channel is a joint $239 million (£147 million) venture between the chat show queen and Discovery, and reaches 70 million homes across America.

It is aiming to provide 600 hours of original programming but has initially included many repeats.

The new programmes include a yet to be broadcast reality series hosted by the Duchess of York.

Miss Winfrey, who is worth an estimated $2.7 billion (£1.7 billion,) said recently: “I think we’re going to have some perhaps rocky times with the channel, keeping people there and keeping people motivated to keep watching, keeping them engaged.”

basil9
March 1st, 2011 at 10:50 pm
O.M.G.
Check this terrifying clip of a Wisconsin congressman being chased down and heckled by a crowd of protesters. Just imagine what would have happened had the TEA Party rallies ever reveled this kind of behavior. The country has truly gone mad. BO has succeeded in dividing us. This is shocking.

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True, it is a shocking and scary situation shown by the video. The site offers a newer article on this:

Dozens of protesters, some shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame,” chased Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, around the Capitol Tuesday evening as he banged in vain on closed windows and locked entrances trying to get in.

Eventually the crowd, by then numbering close to 200, cornered him in front of the closed West Washington entrance, and Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, came to the rescue with a bullhorn.

Or “kind of” came to the rescue, Grothman said when contacted at his home in West Bend later that night. Grothman says Hulsey did help him escape the crowd but he was never that worried. “I really think if I had had to, I could have walked through the crowd and it would have been okay,” he said. [snip]

Castaneda was among the protesters who urged the hecklers to leave the senator alone. One of the most aggressive of the bunch, he says, was a shaggy-bearded man banging a drum who started railing against collective bargaining and the unions. “The guy who was the most violent about it turned out to be pretty right wing,” he says. “He seemed a little off.” All Grothman would say about him was that he was “a little mean.”

Another protester watching, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was “scary.” It was the first time during two weeks of protests, he said, that he worried things could have gotten ugly. [more…]

Fox News Lies About “Violent Wisconsin Protests”
Here’s a clip form tonights [posted March 1] O’Rielly show. You’ve gotta see this. They spliced in a clip from some place else to make it seem as though there was a rowdy crowd in Madison Wisconsin. Look closely for the palm trees in the background (I have yet to see a palm tree in Madison).

Embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has now acknowledged in a press conference and in a nationally televised interview — with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren — that he engaged in discussions with political allies about hiring “troublemakers” to disrupt peaceful demonstrations against his budget repair bill.

“You said you thought about it?” asked Van Susteren.

“We did,” replied Walker. “We had people contacting (us). I even had lawmakers and others suggesting riling things up.”

Madison attorney Lester Pines, one of the state’s most respected trial lawyers, referred to that comment as “a scandal.”

“If, in fact, they took any steps toward implementing that (plan to disrupt rallies), that’s a crime,” explained Pines. “If they took steps to implement that, they engaged in a conspiracy to deny people their civil rights.”

After learning of the governor’s comments in the Thursday interview, Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, a lawman with 27 years of experience, said: “I spent a good deal of time overnight thinking about Governor Walker’s response, during his news conference yesterday, to the suggestion that his administration ‘thought about’ planting troublemakers among those who are peacefully protesting his bill. I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his Cabinet members.

“I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers.

“Our department works hard dialoguing with those who are exercising their First Amendment right, those from both sides of the issue, to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure they can demonstrate safely. I am concerned that anyone would try to undermine these relationships.

“I have a responsibility to the community, and to the men and women of this department — who are working long hours protecting and serving this community — to find out more about what was being considered by state leaders.”

On Friday, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz went further, releasing a letter to Walker in which he referenced the governor’s comment and then wrote, “I believe I join most Wisconsinites who find those comments deeply troubling. The protests in Madison have received national recognition for their civility. They have been loud and passionate, but also peaceful. Police and protesters have complimented one another on their behavior. The police have been patient and professional while the protesters have been orderly and respectful of their surroundings. For their governor to seriously entertain for even a moment the idea of disrupting the peaceful expression of civic engagement is a very serious concern.”

“Like most Wisconsinites,” the mayor continued, “I want to believe that our governor would not engage in this kind of behavior. Yet your response so far has been less than reassuring. I hope that you can address these concerns by answering the following questions:

“• Who made the suggestion to disrupt the protests?

“• What was the exact nature of the suggestion?

“• What was your immediate response?

“• What steps, if any, did you or others take to carry out the plan to disrupt protests?

“• Why didn’t you reject it along legal and moral grounds instead of political considerations?”

Cieslewicz’s questions are appropriate and they need to be answered. But, so far, Walker has provided spin rather than a credible response.

Public interest and media groups have been forced to file Freedom of Information Act requests for details of Walker’s conversations regarding stirring up violence.

Legislators are also demanding answers.

“As the father of two young children who have been at these demonstrations, along with thousands of other children who came from across Wisconsin with their parents to participate in these marches and rallies, I want to know exactly what transpired in those conversations,” said state Rep. Cory Mason, a Racine Democrat. “How seriously did the governor take these proposals to disrupt demonstrations? Did he explore this option? Who brought it up with him? And did he turn the names of the people who made these suggestions over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies?”

Attorney Pines notes that in all of his descriptions of internal discussions about disrupting demonstrations — and perhaps causing violence — the governor has seemed to suggest that he entertained those discussions as part of a broader discourse about how to respond to peaceful protests that have brought hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites into the streets of cities and towns across the state.

“If someone suggests something like this to a governor, the response should be: ‘I would never talk about such a thing. I took an oath to a constitution that requires me to protect people’s freedom to assemble and speak freely.’ And that governor should tell anyone who suggests such a thing that he will not have any further dealings with them,” said Pines. “What troubles me is that Governor Walker seems to have joined in these discussions without sending a strong signal that it is wrong to propose disruptions. That’s outrageous.”

Copyright 2011 madison.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Here is a Valentines’s Day’s clip of a Harvard professor destroying the MSNBC morning crew. Not Joe, but the rest of the crew are left shell-shocked by the professor’s dismantling of Obama’s Foreign Policy on Egypt. His remarks are short, to the point, & unchanging; and regardless of the angle “they” try to attack him from, he shoots “them” all down with the same comparisions. Worth watching !

Just a few paragraphs from a really good report examining the crisis behind all the crises in the news.full of links to credible sources.

Matt Taibbi notes that the government is doing more to protect them than to prosecute them:

“Federal regulators and prosecutors have let the banks and finance companies that tried to burn the world economy to the ground get off with carefully orchestrated settlements — whitewash jobs that involve the firms paying pathetically small fines without even being required to admit wrongdoing. To add insult to injury, the people who actually committed the crimes almost never pay the fines themselves; banks caught defrauding their shareholders often use shareholder money to foot the tab of justice.

***

“A veritable mountain of evidence indicates that when it comes to Wall Street, the justice system not only sucks at punishing financial criminals, it has actually evolved into a highly effective mechanism for protecting financial criminals. This institutional reality has absolutely nothing to do with politics or ideology — it takes place no matter who’s in office or which party’s in power. To understand how the machinery functions, you have to start back at least a decade ago, as case after case of financial malfeasance was pursued too slowly or not at all, fumbled by a government bureaucracy that too often is on a first-name basis with its targets. Indeed, the shocking pattern of nonenforcement with regard to Wall Street is so deeply ingrained in Washington that it raises a profound and difficult question about the very nature of our society: whether we have created a class of people whose misdeeds are no longer perceived as crimes, almost no matter what those misdeeds are. The SEC and the Justice Department have evolved into a bizarre species of social surgeon serving this nonjailable class, expert not at administering punishment and justice, but at finding and removing criminal responsibility from the bodies of the accused.

“The systematic lack of regulation has left even the country’s top regulators frustrated. Lynn Turner, a former chief accountant for the SEC, laughs darkly at the idea that the criminal justice system is broken when it comes to Wall Street. ‘I think you’ve got a wrong assumption — that we even have a law-enforcement agency when it comes to Wall Street,’ he says”.

“Many social effects, including large movements in the economy, occur as a result of the acts and omissions of many people, none of whom intended to cause those effects. The Great Depression of the 1930s was not self-consciously engineered by anyone; increases in the unemployment or inflation rate, or in the price of gasoline, may reflect market pressures rather than intentional action.”

However, Sunstein is neither an economist nor a criminologist, and – as such – is completely out of his depth.

Whether or not anyone intended to cause the Great Depression, top economists – including Robert Shiller, Robert Kuttner, William Black and John Kenneth Galbraith, and the former chief accountant of the S.E.C. ( Lynn Turner) – have said that criminal fraud led to the Great Depression (and to the current crisis). Even Alan Greenspan says fraud caused the current crisis.

Mrs. Smith
You know I love yah, but I disagree that she should back off…the freaking world is in a huge crisis and just because she’s Hillary Clinton and smart as hell…why the fuck should she back off just because these assholes are knuckle dragging neanderthals, fuck them! She needs to work as hard as she can and do what she she feels necessary to save this country. I am proud of her and her work, her courage, her work ethic and her love of America and its middle class. I could give a crap about the narrow minded dickheads that are just plain old ignorant….they all can get on the Titanic and go to Libya and live Daffyduck if they think he’s so great!

All this from a man that calls who himself a Christian….how in the world can you call yourself a Christian and not care about all of Gods people and all of God’s creatures….its just so stupid and pathetic…yet these republicans like the stupid Ron Paul not wanting us to interfere in the world’s politics….well we’re are not suppose to give a crap about women getting their heads chopped off…and they have the audacity to call themselves Christians…well I betcha Mother Theresa is up in heaven giving Hillary Clinton huge applause! She also cared about the sick, aged and the helpless, but of coarse she was poor so they did not chastise her everyday on TV, although they wouldn’t let her be on the Empire State building that they lit up for the fucking dictator of China….Sorry for the rant, but I’m still mad as hell.

I have to apologize for the cussing this morning and last night on the blog…but you know I get so sick of everyone beating up on Hillary…for Pete’s sake she is working her ass off! Why must women always have to look like they are ready for the front page of Vogue magazine? Imagine what this country would of looked like if women hadn’t helped their husbands work the farm and their ranches way back when? Sometimes I think women were more appreciated back then for their stamina…because now we are just sex objects for the gratification of men. Women get old, men get distinguished…that’s a crock!

Carol 9:59 That was an interesting interview. I guess I have also be mystified at how a speech or one action done by O is immediately a success. Speeches usually stand the test of time. The one phrase I hear a lot is “It Takes a Village” which was laughed at when first presented, but used over and over again. HRC has already made that historic speech, and she has not been placed in office yet.

As to how Egypt turns out, he is right, we need to wait and see. But this claim that he has done this so well, just is rediculous. The question is what did he do so well, stand on the sidelines and change his opinion every 3 seconds. However, what he does extreme well is swagger up to the microphone like he is King Shxt, and then proceeds to tell you nothing. Do the experts in the media really think the public is so stupid as to contine to not observe that he is a non leader? I guess so, because they keep saying he is. Poor Oprah, had one good idea, which made a lot of money, and she thinks she knows it all, especially who should lead the country.

With all we have access to in this country, I just don’t understand why people continue to be so brain washed. And she just cannot understand what we expect of him. Believe me, her standards for the people that work for her are extremely high. So why should she think that the Standards for our President should be so low.

Check this terrifying clip of a Wisconsin congressman being chased down and heckled by a crowd of protesters. Just imagine what would have happened had the TEA Party rallies ever reveled this kind of behavior. The country has truly gone mad. BO has succeeded in dividing us. This is shocking
——————————————
Videos like this are a godsent to the governor. They kill the credibility of the protestors, and make them all out to be nothing more than a deranged mob–who threaten everyone. Shades of the French Revolution. The only thing missing are the guillotines. And that is only a matter of time. What succeeds the monarchy however after the death of the instigators is a much more repressive form of government and a more virulent form of nationalism. With responsible union leadership, it would never have come to this. When the governor does not move, the incentive is to escalate until finally we have overt acts of violence. Events move with dramatic precision to a denouement which no one intended but everyone agrees after the fact was faintly familiar and inevitable. Rather than asking how did we get into this economic mess and who is responsible and who is creating this distraction to protect their own, people fight among themselves, and pretend that mass action can repeal the laws of economics. Given the looming prospect of bankruptcy, if Scott Walker did not exist they would need to invent him. To me this whole thing is profoundly discouraging because it falls on the backs of the people who are responsible for the educating the next generation of Americans and it did not have to come to this. The polls on this issue have been shown to be fraudulent, so they do not tell the real story. Obama’s internals do that and its why he has pulled back from the dispute. I have seen this kind of thing before–and it is a failure of union leadership. I saw it when Reagan broke the Air Traffic Controllers. I know the attorneys who handled the case for his Secretary of Transportation and the story was anything but what Big Media reported. In fact, Reagan was scared to death about this, feared it would result in a breakdown of the transportation system and in desperation kept throwing lifelines to the union leader Robert Poli who kept ignoring them and that was the real reason that the union was broken. You see the same stupidity here.

Mrs. Smith
You know I love yah, but I disagree that she should back off…
______________________

Calming down is the first order of business. Cooler heads always prevail. Why let people upset you when thats the whole idea getting you all emotional and upset… bad things happen when you’re angry, you know that-

No doubt about it, confloyd, of course you are Right! But she can’t save the world, not as Secretary of State.. She has a chance if she makes it to the Oval Office… that is our first priority, not Libya.

Under different circumstances Hillary’s message to the world aimed at Human Rights abuses saying they should NOT be tolerated by any civilized society is a truly humanistic thing to say. I haven’t seen one country step forward to help. The UK got rid of all it’s battleships- they have one old, broken down thing that probably isn’t even seaworthy. They’ve already said, count us out of this one-

It made me sick when she mentioned the work started by GWB sending aide to foreign countries during his tenure in office. They started this debacle in the first place. Stroking them is a waste of time.

Have you heard ONE Republican condemning the killings going on in Libya? No, not one. (that I’m aware of-)

The Neo-Cons have everyone’s eyes in this country focused on Governor Walker and the Union happenings in Wisconsin. While Hillary is out on a limb advocating for a situation she is powerless to do anything about. Why is that? I don’t see any congressional members openly supporting her. If you do- let me know who. Kerry, has sat on the sidelines, silent, keeping HIS big mouth shut. A real oddity, even for him.

Hang-on and think for a minute- The UN Resolution was supposed to be passed “as is” with the included language “illegal” instead of the current wording “illegitimate” which has been the accepted language for years regarding the settlements in Israel. Obama vetoed it because it was incorrect… Did he want to veto it? Probably not seeing he makes no secret of being Pro-Palestinian.

Kaddafi is on the loose- if the original language had been passed by the UN when every single member, also intermittent members, of the UN voted for it’s passage. Not a single member balked at the incorrectness of the word/phrase “illegal” substituted for the word “illegitimate” as the wrong wording replacing the wording and the connotation it brings with it as the word “illegal.”

Ok- the wording in the agreements also says, (paraphrased) ‘it will not allow any violence or taking of lives or land.’ Think about it- Kaddafi is Libyan… he isn’t/wasn’t under any such restriction. It was planned he would be the one leading a massacre in Israel right now..

Where did Kaddafi come-up with paid mercenary’s so quickly. Could he gather hundreds maybe thousands of men overnight to fight, even for his own country? They most likely were aboard the Iranian ships
cruising Israel’s coastline or picked up from Yemen when the Iranian ships got permission to pass thru the Suez Canal..

No I maintain what I said- The Republicans and the Obama Cartel are waiting for Hillary to put one foot wrong, even if it’s not true, they will make a circus out of it just like they did to Palin.

I understand how you feel, confloyd, and maybe in my selfishness, my thinking is we need Hillary whole and as popular as she ever was here for us, getting our country back on track again… I don’t want to see Big Media grab a hold of her like they did Palin and snuff her like a doused candle because you know as well as I do, she is the only person we have in the world that can fix it…and why I say, she has to backaway, watch her step, and look at what is going on around her…

As far as Hillary looking tired and needing to be careful, well given her job description is it any surprise that she is overworked and exhausted at times? Hillary is the ONLY shining light on bambi’s otherwise corrupt team (exception: Gates).

As well, obama throws her out into the limelight whenever things get a little too much for him to handle. In otherwords 99% of the time. Do I trust him and his thug buddies???

NO.

Do I agree with Mrs. Smith that Hillary needs to be careful and walk a fine line right now???

YES.

This is a matter of keeping “keeping your enemies close” and watching for the bus.

(The Times contacted Mr. Hahn again to review his background after a United Auto Workers official said the union had no record of his membership.)http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/nyt-punkd-by-anti-union-plant-paunchs-scoop-is-poop/
This clear picture of a bunch of agendas happily coinciding – ‘Sulzberger! Find me a Wisconsin union guy who agrees with the Governor!’ – and to hell with the facts or the fact-checking or the spelling, with the truth coming to light only from – gasp! – an actual union guy (from the devil UAW itself!), has been reduced to a “PS, the publisher’s kid kinda screwed up on the most important domestic news story of the moment” instead of serving as the springboard for something fair, or even useful – maybe a front-page piece about the disinformation war being waged by Governor Walker and the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party in Wisconsin and whether or not this Hahan/Hahn was part of it, intentionally or inadvertently.

Hillary Clinton was defending her department budget in front of the U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities committee this morning on C-Span.

She says a major reason the State Department needs money is because “we are in an information war and we are losing that war.”

Clinton said private media is not good enough to handle the job: “Our private media cannot fill that gap. Our private media, particularly cultural programming often works at counter purposes to what we truly are as Americans. I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling.”

Meanwhile she says Al-Jazeera, CCTV and Russia Today are killing it: “Al Jazeera is winning. The Chinese have opened up a global English language and multi-language television network, the Russians have opened up an English language network. I’ve seen it in a couple of countries and it’s quite instructive.”

Clinton says she is leading an effort to spread U.S. propaganda through new media, with twitter feeds in Arabic and Farsi.

She warns that Republicans want to cut the State Department budget by half.

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestine’s delegation to the UN Human Rights Council walked out Monday in protest of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech in which she criticized the council for bias against Israel.

The Palestinian representative in Geneva on Tuesday confirmed reports in the Arabic media that delegates stormed out of Clinton’s speech, which was heavy on criticism of Israel’s neighbors and the UN body.

“We walked out to protest Clinton’s death-defying defense of Israel when she said the council was biased against Israel,” Ambassador Ibrahim Khreisha said Tuesday.

He told Ma’an radio that Clinton spoke about human rights violations in Egypt, Tunis, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Iran, then cited Israel as a victim and ignored its “crimes against the Palestinians.”

He urged that “blind support for Israel be brought to an end,” calling on the US administration to take an impartial stance in the Middle East, particularly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Clinton’s remarks came at a session passing sanctions against Libya’s regime, including a travel ban and assets freeze, arms embargo and call for a crimes against humanity investigation.

She said the council discredited itself by frequently targeting Israel.

“The structural bias against Israel – including a standing agenda item for Israel, whereas all other countries are treated under a common item – is wrong. And it undermines the important work we are trying to do together. As member states, we can take this council in a better, stronger direction,” Clinton said.

In New York, the UN on Tuesday suspended Libya from its main human rights body over Moammar Gadhafi’s crackdown on protests amid warnings of new Security Council action against the regime.

With growing western calls for a no-fly zone over Libya, Britain’s UN envoy said the council would take “whatever measures we consider necessary to respond to events on the ground.”

The 192-member assembly passed a suspension resolution by consensus, without a vote, after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the body to “act decisively” against Gadhafi.

The Human Rights Council in Geneva had called for the suspension, which needed a two-thirds majority at the General Assembly to be passed. It is the first time it has acted against a member.

Nobody spoke up for the Libyan regime at the brief debate, though Venezuela accused the United States of planning an invasion of Libya, provoking US fury.

“This unprecedented action sends another clear warning to Mr. Gadhafi and those who still stand by him: they must stop the killing,” said US ambassador Susan Rice, reaffirming calls for Gadhafi to “go.”

WASHINGTON — For a man who won office talking about change we can believe in, Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. There are a startling number of occasions in which the president has been missing in action — unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational, more cautious than forceful.

Each of these instances can be explained on its own terms, as matters of legislative strategy, geopolitical calculation or political prudence.

He didn’t want to get mired in legislative details during the health care debate for fear of repeating the Clinton administration’s prescriptive, take-ours-or-leave-it approach. He doesn’t want to go first on proposing entitlement reform because history teaches that this is not the best route to a deal. He didn’t want to say anything too tough about Libya for fear of endangering Americans trapped there. He didn’t want to weigh in on the labor battle in Wisconsin because, well, it’s a swing state.

Yet the dots connect to form an unsettling portrait of a “Where’s Waldo?” presidency: You frequently have to squint to find the White House amid the larger landscape.

This tough assessment from someone who generally shares the president’s ideological perspective may be hard to square with the conservative portrait of Obama as the rapacious perpetrator of a big-government agenda. If the president is being simultaneously accused of overreaching ambition and gutless fight-ducking, maybe he’s doing something right.

Maybe — or else Obama has at times managed to do both simultaneously. On health care, for instance, he took on a big fight without being able to articulate a clear message or being willing to set out any but the broadest policy prescriptions. Lawmakers, not to mention the public, were left guessing about what, exactly, the administration wanted to see in the measure and where it would draw red lines.

That was not an isolated case. Where, for example, is the president on the verge of a potential government shutdown — if not this week, then a few weeks from now?

Aside from a short statement from the Office of Management and Budget threatening a presidential veto of the House version of the funding measure, the White House — much to the frustration of some congressional Democrats — has been unclear in public and private about what cuts would and would not be acceptable.

By contrast, a few weeks before the shutdown in 1995, Clinton administration aides had dispatched Cabinet members and other high-ranking officials to spread the message that cuts in education, health care and housing would harm families and children. Obama seems more the passive bystander to negotiations between the House and Senate than the chief executive leading his party.

Obama performs best on a stage that permits the grandest sweep. He rises to the big occasion, from his inspiring introduction to the public in his 2004 Democratic convention speech to his healing words in the aftermath of the Tucson shootings.

The president has faltered, though, when called on to translate that rhetoric to more granular levels of specificity: What change, exactly, does he want people to believe in? How, even more exactly, does he propose to get there? “Winning the future” doesn’t quite do it.

My biggest beef is with the president’s slipperiness on fiscal matters. Obama has said he agrees with some of his fiscal commission’s recommendations and disagrees with others. Which ones does he disagree with? I asked this question the other day to Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Here’s what I got: “The view espoused by some of the … commission that we ought to do Social Security 100 percent off of benefit cuts for sure he doesn’t agree with.” But of course, the plan that 11 of the commission members endorsed did nothing of the sort.

I was unfair to Goolsbee because I asked him a question he didn’t have the leeway to answer. You can’t blame the aide for ducking when the boss fudges.

Where’s Obama? No matter how hard you look, sometimes he’s impossible to find.

JanH
“We walked out to protest Clinton’s death-defying defense of Israel when she said the council was biased against Israel,” Ambassador Ibrahim Khreisha said Tuesday.
****************************
this sounds like a death threat to me against our Sec of State. Where is Eric Holder and our congress leaders in denouncing this? Susan Rice maybe? Probably not.

When a group starts claiming that a poll was rigged or the sampling was scewed, you know they are losing the public relations war. Pay them no mind. We know that all polls and most polling agencies are biased in some way or other or to some degree. It only becomes an issue when it interferes with some other group’s propaganda.

There may be some suspect poll results sometimes, so it’s worth checking.

But here are three major established polls agreeing on an anti-corporate result (supporting unions over Walker). Why would they all slant toward anti-corporate? Obama backed off from pretending to support the unions, so the polls couldn’t just be supporting him.

I just don’t know how much longer I can keep up with this politics thing….its just unbearable what is going on…I’ve quit watching TV, but when all I do now is just keep up with this blog and I’m bombarded at my job with this kind of crap….I just really don’t need this crap! I don’t know who is causing all this distention in America and around the world but its needs to stop or people are going to go ballistic….me I’m just going to quit even looking on this blog. People are just too crazy anymore and stupid on top of that! I’m too old for this crap…I’m liable to blow a blood vessel or something…

——–
I’m sorry you went though that girl…I know how it feels too.

At work I have Hillary and Bill’s photo behind my desk on a wall…for all to see. No one ever asks me if I support Obama any longer, my computer wallpaper has a great photo of Hillary too, so if I am away from my desk, she is there to let the obots know that they had better STFU around me about Barry loving. I have lost friends over the 2008 battle against corruption.

I also understand how you feel about not watching the news and having a difficult time blogging. Some days I get so angry I want to rip someone’s head off, so I try to stay off the blog for awhile.

What ever happens, know that most of us feel the same way. Almost three years of political destruction and people being hurt financially is painful and more than just ‘politics as usual’.

basil9
March 1st, 2011 at 10:50 pm
O.M.G.
Check this terrifying clip of a Wisconsin congressman being chased down and heckled by a crowd of protesters. Just imagine what would have happened had the TEA Party rallies ever reveled this kind of behavior. The country has truly gone mad. BO has succeeded in dividing us. This is shocking.

From Hotair.

http://dane101.com/current/2011/03/01/wisconsin_gop_senator_glenn_grothman_chased_trapped_by_hecklers_saved_by_dem_rep_
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Okay, so I watched this terrifying video of a Wisc. congressman locked out of the statehouse and recognized by the crowd of protestors. About the only thing terrifying about it was the noise made by the whistles, air horns and drums of the protestors. Apparently the congressman did not get the memo about using the secret entrance since the doors to the statehouse are locked against the protestors and the citizens of Wisc. The crowd then began to follow him (not chase) chanting Shame, shame, shame (and some ruder chants) as he goes from entrance to entrance trying to get someone’s attention inside to let him in. The people closest to him are mostly cameramen and reporters trying to interview him. Pretty terrifying, I admit. When he finally stops at a doorway, a crowd of orange vested official persons (security or protest leaders?) surround him as do protest leaders making peace signs while the crowd chants ‘peaceful, peaceful, peaceful’. The leaders remind the crowd that there are cameras recording this since they know how it will be propagandized.

He is on his cell phone trying to get staff members to come and let him in, finally firefighters escort him to a firetruck. Other than the fact that any crowd can get out of hand, this was pretty mild by any standard. I use to hate it when the tea party rallies were described as angry, hateful and racist when they clearly were not. This seems like more of the same.

confloyd
You have to learn to stay dispassionate when the nerds start criticize the Clintons, especially Hillary. When a male criticizes her or any woman’s looks, just look them up and down and comment on their appearance. I’ve even done this to my own son. They learn never to try that again. It’s because women can be intimidated by these kinds of remarks that they use them. And as far as the other criticisms about HRC, my brother handled that the best I’ve ever heard years ago when she was first lady. The neanderthals at the post office where he worked started trashing her one day and he just laughed at them and said, ‘you can’t stand her because she’s smarter than you are’. That shut them up around him.

BCL,
That’s a great idea…I’ll try that. I shouldn’t get so furious, but Hillary is my Shero! I admire her more than anyone that breathes.

Well I just got back from the beautyshop….it cost me another $100 for a touchup and a haircut…geez it cost a lot of money to keep an old hag like me looking decent…men can get a $7.00 haircut…grow a beard and a mustaches to cover their wrinkle…damn their hyde! Sometimes we get the crappy end of the stick.

The republicans want to cut the State Dept. budget in half…only because they want to cripple HRC….she is doing such a tremendous the freaking rethugs are jeolous as hell…we just can’t have a woman, let alone a Clinton showing the bastards for what they really are!

confloyd
You have to learn to stay dispassionate when the nerds start criticize the Clintons, especially Hillary. When a male criticizes her or any woman’s looks, just look them up and down and comment on their appearance. I’ve even done this to my own son. They learn never to try that again. It’s because women can be intimidated by these kinds of remarks that they use them. And as far as the other criticisms about HRC, my brother handled that the best I’ve ever heard years ago when she was first lady. The neanderthals at the post office where he worked started trashing her one day and he just laughed at them and said, ‘you can’t stand her because she’s smarter than you are’. That shut them up around him.

Well I just got back from the beautyshop….it cost me another $100 for a touchup and a haircut…geez it cost a lot of money to keep an old hag like me looking decent…men can get a $7.00 haircut…grow a beard and a mustaches to cover their wrinkle…damn their hyde! Sometimes we get the crappy end of the stick.
&&&&&&

I’m sure you’re no old hag, but self-deprecating humor (a la Rodney Dangerfield) is much more civil than the insult-comedian schtick (Don Rickles, although I ain’t saying the DR isn’t funny).

As for what women pay vs what men pay, my wife points out that women are constantly charged a “lack-of-pen*s” fee. More expensive:

* haircuts (not including perms, etc.

* shoes

* hand lotion

* clothing

Don’t even ask about what mechanics and other service people do to take advantage of “the fairer sex”. And yet, women do more of the shopping.

confloyd
*The republicans want to cut the State Dept. budget in half…only because they want to cripple HRC*

I think it’s not just the republicans, Bambam wants to cut her budget too, I blogged about it a while back. She can’t say it, but he’s just going to to wring his hands and pretend the mean pubs are making him do it, but he really wants to make her stumble. She is getting too high-profile and makes him look bad.http://crayfisher.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/wielding-budge…ike-a-stiletto/

“About the only thing terrifying about it was the noise made by the whistles, air horns and drums of the protestors.”

So I take it you wouldn’t mind being in the congressman’s position? Well, bravo for you.

Personally, having worked crowd control situations in school cafeterias and seeing how easily kids got out of hand and what happens when they do I sure as he11 would not have wanted to be in that poor guys predicament.

That was hundreds of almost rabid idiots aimed and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. I have been involved in enough chaotic mob situations to know that. That was nuts.

rgbhrc44,
And I also forgot men have Viagara…darn it…they can’t figure out the recipe for the women’s viagara! Men just have a win-win all the way around…..but we get their asses in divorce court….yah!

Two US airmen have been shot dead and two wounded at Frankfurt airport.

The gunman, believed to be from Kosovo, opened fire on a bus containing US airmen in front of Terminal 2. The bus driver and a passenger were killed and two others were seriously injured.

Police said it appeared an argument had broken out on board the bus before the suspect opened fire. The dead soldier was found outside the bus, which had a US government licence plate marked “AF”, for air force.

The two injured had been shot in the head and chest, police said. The gunman fled from the scene and a suspect was arrested inside the terminal shortly afterwards.

Police would not give out any information on the suspect, but Kosovo said he was one of its citizens.

Kosovo’s interior minister, Bajram Rexhepi, said German police had identified the suspect as 21-year-old Arif Uka, from the northern town of Mitrovica.

“This is a devastating and a tragic event,” Rexhepi said. “We are trying to find out was this something that was organised or what was the nature of the attack.”

The Pentagon and the US air force had no immediate information on the incident.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama honored 20 artists, scholars and writers — from James Taylor to Quincy Jones, from Philip Roth to Joyce Carol Oates — in a salute to the arts and humanities that embraced both celebrity and quiet achievement.

Fox did not lie, that video was from union protest in Sacramento, California (hence the palm trees), they went after a tea party activist in that video. The entire video is at the link, Fox took bits and pieces from several union rallies across the country.

God Bless our military men and women, what a horrible tragic story. I have more faith in Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel than I do in Mr. Waffles in calling out this jihadist attack. Merkel will not mince words, Waffles will wait for a poll to come out before deciding what to do.

Hillary Clinton was defending her department budget in front of the U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities committee this morning on C-Span.

She says a major reason the State Department needs money is because “we are in an information war and we are losing that war.”

Clinton said private media is not good enough to handle the job: “Our private media cannot fill that gap. Our private media, particularly cultural programming often works at counter purposes to what we truly are as Americans. I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling.”

Meanwhile she says Al-Jazeera, CCTV and Russia Today are killing it: “Al Jazeera is winning. The Chinese have opened up a global English language and multi-language television network, the Russians have opened up an English language network. I’ve seen it in a couple of countries and it’s quite instructive.”

I think this qualifies as a great big hypocrisy WHOOPS. Couldnt make this shit up.

Reverend Grant Storms, the gay bashing preacher from New Orleans, has been arrested for public masturbation near a playground in a public park. While police file reports saying the preacher confessed, Storms later claimed it was not true but asked for forgiveness from other preachers.

First time I’ve seen Kerry give Hillary the respect she deserves.. he seemed sincere anyway- Lugar was respectful as well. Great to see and hear her worth and hard work recognized by her Senate peers.

Kerry seemed totally unprepared for the hearing like it was a last minute set up. Hillary’s tone of voice was a bit more relaxed as well moreso today than yesterday- and I love her new wardrobe… hoping she has a stylist now, seeing she devotes so much time to work, theres little time left to shop.

Obama can coast as Ribbon-Cutter-in-Chief because the slack is picked up by others, like that Hillary lady.

But seriously, it’s okay for a prez to balance fluff and spin with real work…but Obama’s problem (and by that I mean “the country’s problem”) is that all he does is fluff and spin. The guy is a useless piece of shit, and the void at the top is palpable and is causing problems. See the Ruth Marcus piece about “Where’s Waldo?”.

WASHINGTON — A US warship with hundreds of Marines on board headed towards Libya on Tuesday, defense officials said, as US and European allies sought to pile pressure on embattled leader Moamer Khadafi.

The USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship accompanied by two other naval vessels, was expected to pass through the Suez Canal soon from the Red Sea, two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

“We’re certainly moving assets to be closer (to Libya),” one of the defense officials said.

The Kearsarge amphibious ready group, with about 800 marines, a fleet of helicopters and medical facilities, could support humanitarian efforts as well as military operations.

“A ship like the Kearsage is capable of many types of missions,” the same official said.

US military leaders are preparing a range of options for President Barack Obama and holding discussions with their European counterparts, but the likelihood of military intervention remained unclear, the official said.

“I think it (the advice) goes from everything from a show of force to something more involved,” the official said, adding: “The president has made no decisions about the use of the military.”

Analysts say a symbolic show of force off the coast of Libya in and of itself could increase pressure on Khadafi but the official said the deployment of naval and air forces near Libya was not an empty gesture.

“There are sailors on ships heading that way, it’s real.”

An American aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise — which has fighter jets that could enforce a possible no-fly zone — could also be called upon for the Libya crisis. The carrier is currently in the north of the Red Sea, according to the US Navy’s website.